1
25
68
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1886/36471/MStandivanAR1717552-170629-040002.1.jpg
229cb91b08a8e77ab4144ab275bb35f8
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1886/36471/MStandivanAR1717552-170629-040003.1.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Standivan, Arthur George
A G Standivan
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-06-29
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Standivan, AG
Description
An account of the resource
58 items. The collection concerns Leading Aircraftsman Arthur George Standivan (1717552 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He served as ground personnel with Second Tactical Air Force The collection includes two photograph albums, one of his <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2148">Service life in the UK and France</a>, the other concerns <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2149">the liberation of Belsen</a>. The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Brenda Titchen and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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2nd Tactical Air Force Christmas card
Description
An account of the resource
Christmas card produced by 2nd TAF Welfare. Front of the card is coloured pale blue, has the R.AF crest, and in white writing it has 2nd Tactical Air Force, Royal Air Force, Christmas 1944 and a sprig of holly.
Inside is a colour drawing showing the short history of the 2nd TAF shown the landing on the D Day beachhead and their progress through Europe helping to liberate Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and finally returning home to their families in England.
There is a short poem and space for a dedication, this card says from 'Charlie B.L.A.'
Creator
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2nd Tactical Air Force Welfare
Temporal Coverage
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1944-12
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Language
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eng
Type
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Artwork
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Format
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One Christmas card
Identifier
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MStandivanAR1717552-170629-040001, MStandivanAR1717552-170629-040002, MStandivanAR1717552-170629-040003
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Second Tactical Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/641/32464/BSmithJSmithJv1-2.1.pdf
fa99ddac1408d0948f187f5b15dccf96
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Smith, Jack
John George Smith
J G Smith
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Smith, JG
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with John 'Jack' Smith (1921 -2019) and his memoirs. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 189 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Smith and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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Sparks in the Air
These are the wartime recollections of Pinchbeck resident John George Smith known to his friends as Jack.
Jack was born in 1921, the son of George and Bessie Smith. George was the keeper of a smallholding, raising Poultry and assisting a local farmer.
[photograph of Jack]
As a young teenager growing up in 1930’s England, through the newspapers of the day, Jack was aware of events taking place in Germany and of Britain’s own Fascist problems directed by Oswald Mosley. Although still only a teenager, Jack approached the time he would leave school realising that another war in Europe was inevitable.
Jack left Donington Grammar School in1937 his parents and relatives asking the question “What are you going to do?” Jack had an ambition to become a Chartered Accountant however this required any potential candidate to pay an indenture however the cost was prohibitive and Jack decided to try and join the RAF instead. Ironically jack encountered the same obstacles as his Father who had been unable to join up to serve his country during the First World War because of the poor state of his teeth. At the age of 17, Jack had 22 teeth removed!
Having seen an advert in the Spalding Free Press for “Well educated youth required by Chartered Accountants, Hodgson, Harris & Co”, a national company who had a small office in Spalding over Gibbs shoe shop, Jack applied and got his first job. There was no payment to the company however it only had a low wage of ten shillings a week. There were no girls in the office and as a consequence Jack had to learn shorthand typing to a standard of 100 words/minute, this alongside learning accountancy.
[bold] This is Jacks[sic] account of his wartime memories. [/bold]
When war broke out on 3rd September 1939 recruiting for the forces had started at 20 years plus however I was only 18 at the time. Accountancy was not a reserved occupation and in the August of 1940 I and my colleague Bill Taylor who was the same age as me and worked in the same office both decided to volunteer for the RAF as we didn’t fancy the Army or the Navy.
In September 1940 we were called to the RAF station at Padgate near Warrington to be attested and undergo a medical. Bill and I undertook intelligence tests but we both knew that we wanted to be Wireless Operators.
[page break]
Although the war was now into its second year, there had been as yet no air raids in South Lincolnshire. Whilst at Padgate we suffered ten air raid warnings but fortunately no damage was inflicted on the airfield. It was my first experience of an air raid. This took place over the 13th, 14th and 15th of September and later became known as the Battle of Britain weekend when British fighters shot down 185 German planes.
After my three days at Padgate I returned home to Lincolnshire and on the 4th November 1940 I and my friend Bill Taylor were required to travel to Blackpool. We left from Donington and travelled by train via Manchester arriving at Blackpool in the late afternoon. We were directed to Offices in the centre of Blackpool where we were officially enrolled in the Royal Air Force. Bill and I were then separated and I was lodged at a boarding house at 30 Reads Avenue Blackpool where another 15 RAF personnel were also residing. I was accommodated in the attic where there was a single fanlight, two beds and a wash basin.
The next morning we assembled on the promenade near to the Hotel Metropole. Grouped into Units of approximately thirty, we were placed in the charge of an Acting Corporal. We commenced drill training and were marched around Blackpool for exercise stopping around mid morning at a Café for coffee and buns!
As we were potential Wireless Operators we were required to attend the Winter Gardens daily where we were given instruction in radio technicalities and morse training. Due to double Summertime being in operation, it was exceptionally dark when we set out for the day at 8am. I was given the role of marker to the squad and marched at the front carrying a lantern. There was no heating in the Winter Gardens where we sat throughout the day in our greatcoats breaking only for refreshments before finishing training at around 4 to 4.30 pm.
The food at the boarding house was acceptable being plain in nature but sufficient. In the evenings we were free to enjoy the night life of Blackpool but we had to be back by 10.30pm.
After I had been there for several weeks, I joined a harmonica band consisting of around ten or twelve members and we performed at concerts held in various village halls in the area. The highlight was being able to perform at the Opera House on the same bill as George Formby.
After three weeks I moved to 45 Ashburton Road along with three other RAF personnel. It was a much more homely atmosphere there, living and eating with an elderly couple who owned the property.
After another three or four weeks I moved further down Ashburton Road but only stayed for a couple of nights as it was overcrowded with five to a room. I then moved to 4 Bank Street off the promenade near to the Hotel Metropole and where I had to parade each morning. This was a private hotel and very comfortable as I shared a room with only one other member of the RAF. it was extremely convenient for excursions into town in the evenings and I was happy to remain there until it was time to move on from Blackpool.
[page break]
Radio training continued everyday and we were tested each week at the premises of Burtons the Tailors. We were required to increase morse speed by one word per minute each week until a speed of twelve words per minute had been achieved at which point the course in Blackpool was concluded.
[RAF Radio School crest]
We were then posted to radio schools on normal RAF stations. I was posted to No. 3 radio School at RAF Compton Bassett in Wiltshire which was for ground operators.
There was another radio school nearby to Compton Bassett, No. 4 at Yatesbury which was for aircrew operators.
I enjoyed life here for the first time on a proper RAF station. My day started at 6:30 am with PT on the parade ground square before starting work at 8:00 am.
I was at Compton Bassett from the end of March 1941 to the end of June which was when I qualified as a ground wireless operator and was allowed to wear ‘sparks’ on my right arm.
Having successfully completed training I was allowed home for two weeks leave. This was my first leave since travelling to Blackpool the previous November. I thoroughly enjoyed the break and whilst there I received a posting to the RAF station at Bramcote near Nuneaton. This was a regular peacetime station however at this time it was mainly occupied by members of the Polish Air Force. This was my first experience of an operational signals cabin and for the first time working for real with a radio set.
After several weeks at Bramcote, at the end of July, I was notified I was going on embarkation leave. After three weeks leave I had to make my way to the RAF station at West Kirby in the Wirral Peninsula. On arrival here, I found that several of my fellow colleagues who had been at radio school were also awaiting the same posting. We were all accommodated in tents.
[photograph]
POLISH Aircrew RAF - Fairey Battle Mk 1 sun L5427 BH*E of 300 (Polish) Bomb Squadron “Mazoviecka Province” - RAF Bramcote August 1940 -
[page break]
After several days we were moved by RAF transport into Liverpool for embarkation. The docks were very busy with movement of troops. We marched in units towards the vessel we were to leave England on. This vessel was the Orient Liner SS OTRANTO. Otranto was a 20,000grt passenger vessel that had been modified as a troop carrier. Some 500 RAF personnel embarked along with 3000 men of the Yorkshire Regiment. The decks of the ship went from A to H. RAF personnel were accommodated on E deck which was the last level with portholes.
[photograph]
There were eighteen on each mess table, we slept in hammocks and the toilets were primitive. Ten toilets without doors so there was no privacy. We knew nothing of our destination as security was so tight. On each mess table, two of the men were nominated as mess orderlies and had to bring the food from the galley. I was lumbered with one of these jobs!
After being on board for 24 hours, we departed Liverpool. For me this was quite an experience having never been on a Liner before. It was quite a bright day on 31st August 1941 and our course followed the coast of Northern Ireland. We all started to take a guess at our destination and some of us thought we may be off to Canada to start our Air Crew training.
For a day or so we headed due what until we were well clear of the Irish coast and out into the Atlantic. We were under escort of a number of Royal Navy vessels including two Battle Ships, the ill fated HMS REPULSE and HMS PRINCE OF WALES.
[photograph]
Repulse
[photograph]
Prince of Wales
[page break]
There was very little to do onboard and very little reading material available. The only book that seemed to be in circulation was ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’. After some time a number of personnel got sick and went off their food. It reached a point that on my table only myself and one other Mess Orderly were eating. A number of the party were literally very green and extremely poorly.
The vessel eventually altered to a southerly course from its westward heading, still under escort, many of us spent a lot of time just sleeping and looking over the side watching the waves. Some spent their time writing letters intending to drop them off at the first port of call. All letters were censored prior to posting and in fact one of my associates was identified by the OIC as having referred to the Commanding Officer as bring “nothing more than a broken down commercial traveller”. As a result he was brough before the CO and given 7 days confinement to barracks which in this case was a cell in the depths of the ship on deck ‘H’.
Several days later the vessel changed to an easterly direction giving rise to further speculation as to our destination. Eventually we made landfall on the west coast of Africa, berthing at Freetown where we stayed for a week. This was a very boring seven days as we were not allowed shore leave. We amused ourselves by watching the local boys jumping into the harbour to retrieve coins that were being thrown into the water by army personnel. The temperature was extremely hot and the humidity was high.
At the end of the week we left Freetown and the vessel headed in a southerly direction. We now assumed our destination to be South Africa. As we were now in a consistently hot climate, some of us erected our hammocks on deck where it was much cooler to sleep.
The next sighting of land was that of “Table Mountain” on the Cape however to our surprise we did not call at Capetown but carried on further along the South African coast eventually calling at Durban. We stayed here for a week and during that time were allowed shore leave daily. We were kindly entertained by South Africans who took us to restaurants and hotels for meals and tours in the neighbouring countryside.
The weather was perfect and this was a really enjoyable and welcome break. We were extremely surprised that none of us were staying on in South Africa. We Aircrew thought that we may have been going on to Southern Rhodesia to continue air training – no such luck ,,,,,!
At the end of this week we once again set sail along with our escort of Battleships heading east into the Indian Ocean. We sailed for several days before Repulse and Prince of Wales left us. No one could have imagined that only a few months later both these mighty ships had been sent to the bottom of the South China sea sunk by land based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 10th December 1941. In Japan the engagement was referred to as the Naval Battle of Malaya (Mare-oki Kaisen).
We were more fortunate with our destination as the Otranto finally docked in Bombay (Mumbai) India. Once again we were alongside for a week and were entertained on pleasure trips. I found Bombay to be a very exciting and busy place.
At the end of this week, we Aircrew were taken off the SS Otranto and transferred to a much smaller vessel, the SS KHEDIVE ISMAIL complete with its Lascar crew. Of 7513 grt, formerly the SS ACONCAGUA, built in 1922 as an Ocean Liner and converted to a troop ship in 1940.
[page break]
We eventually left Bombay heading West and once clear of India we were advised that we were going to Basrah in Iraq. This revelation was our first indication as to our final destination.
There was very little comfort onboard and hammocks were again the order of the day. The Lascar crew were very helpful and attentive and at night whilst in our hammocks they would come around with a bucket of tea or chai as they called it. This was very refreshing especially with the temperature as high as it was.
Although the food onboard was quite acceptable, the toilet arrangements were primitive, consisting of a trough the width of the vessel with wood seats where you sat side by side with your fellow airmen – Absolutely no privacy whatsoever …..!
We were off into the Arabian Sea without any sight of land until we entered the Straits of Hormuz, being the entrance to the Persian Gulf. We now had no escorts and sailed on alone through the tranquil waters of the Persian Gulf in very high temperatures and daily sunshine.
[photograph of SS Khedive Ismail]
Land eventually came into sight as we approached the Northern end of the Gulf and we eventually arrived at the Port of Basrah which was a very busy port.
After disembarking, we were directed to a very large cargo shed on the dockside where we were to stay for the next few days. We only had beds made from boards and raised off the floor on four empty biscuit tins. The luxury was completed with one blanket and a small pillow. The temperature at this point was most uncomfortable.
Whilst awaiting a posting, we were able to go into Barrah itself and sample the local life. The authorities were slightly puzzled as there were some fifty of us qualified Wireless Operators and they were not at all sure what to do with us. This took some time to sort out. Eventually a few of us were posted to Shuaiba which is now the second largest port in the State of Kuwait. At that time it was a camp about ten miles out of Basrah which had been a peacetime RAF camp.
The accommodation at Shuaiba was of brick constructed buildings having been built partly below ground to try and reduce the heat as during the height of the season temperatures exceeded 40 deg’s. I spent quite some time carrying out general duties until one morning an order for volunteers for anybody who could type was requested. By this time I was rather tired of filling sand bags and doing guard duty. As I could type and do shorthand, I decided I would risk it and volunteered. I immediately became the Squadron typist and carried out all the office work and correspondence for the C.O.
After a week or so the Squadron was posted to Sharjah a British Protectorate which is now a part of the United Arab Emirates. The squadron consisted of 18 Blenheim aircraft all of which were ex OUT and were not terribly serviceable.
[page break]
The Blenheims were required for anto[sic] submarine patrols up and down the Persian Gulf and out into the Indian Ocean. We were moved to Sharjah by boat and disembarked by dhow into the then village of Dubai. We continued by road transport to Sharjah where we were billeted in huts which had the luxury of fans.
On the edge of the airport was a stone built structure known as the ‘Fort’. This was well equipped as it was used by BOAC crew for overnight stops. Because of the very high temperatures, the Mechanics could only work on the aircraft until 10am and then cease until 6pm. It was so hot an egg could be fried on the wings of aircraft.
Water was in short supply and the only bathing was done in the sea which was about half a mile away. We only had a small supply of fresh water for shaving and tea was rationed. Food was very repetative with many combinations of risoles you have never seen the like of.
Once every fortnight we were allowed American beer which equated to about four half pint cans which were consumed in one night. We used to leave the empty cans outside our billets and by morning they would have been removed by the locals. If you then happened to go into the village of Dubai, these cans could be seen on sale as mugs, having had handles attached.
Although I was trained wireless operator, I was still being misemployed as Squadron Typist which mean that I could not be reclassified and so remained an AC2. However, I eventually took the AC1 examination and was upgraded. Like all the other Wireless Operators out there, we all wanted to get back to complete our Air Crew training. The Adjutant suggested I re muster as a Radio Observer which meant I could go to Southern Rhodesia for training or alternatively consider obtaining a commission as a Filter Officer.
Whilst at Sharjah I suffered quite badly from ‘prickly heat’ which developed into blisters requiring my admission to the base sick bay. I also had heat exhaustion around the time of my 21st birthday, running a temperature of 106 degs.
I was taken to the Fort at the edge of the camp which had air conditioned rooms. My skin problems got progressively worse and I had to have by head completely shaved. I received treatment with bread poultices on my arms and legs which became septic.
[photograph of an aeroplane]
Eventually I was taken by air to the RAF Hospital at Shuaibah and spent 2-3 weeks there recovering in the dermatology ward. At the end of my hospitalisation, I was posted to Tehran in Iran on sick leave. I travelled by road transport through the town of Ahwaz in Iran and then by train to Tehran. This journey took 24 hours. The train was completely full with people sleeping not just on the seats but also on the luggage racks and corridors.
[page break]
When the train stopped in the early morning there were many locals selling eggs and bread on the platform which was very welcome. On reaching Tehran we were taken to a rest home on the edge of the city. It had pleasant facilities. We used to go into Tehran in groups of 3 or 4 personnel.
Towards the end of the two weeks, I developed tonsillitis which resulted in my being taken to the Sick Bay at the RAF Station at Tehran where I remained for a further ten days. The MO allowed me to remain in Tehran until I felt well enough to travel to Basrah but after about a week, I became quite lonely as all my colleagues had by then left.
After arriving back in Basrah I was then posted to Habbaniya, a real peacetime RAF station about fifty five miles West of Baghdad. I was extremely pleased to receive this posting as the climate at Sharjah did not suit me at all.
Habbaniya was quite a large base, all brick buildings including two cinemas and a range of shops where you could buy clothing etc. Surprisingly even the food in the Airmans[sic] mess was exceptionally good! There were also facilities for sporting activities including tennis courts.
We had local youths acting as what we called “cheekos” who did our laundry and kept the village clean. There were 16 men in each billet and we all paid the equivalent of two shillings per week for this domestic assistance. It was always done promptly and efficiently. Each billet had fans as temperatures were around thirty to forty degrees. I was employed as a Ground operator in a Signals Cabin on a shift system, working stations in the UK and India.
I found this to be very enjoyable work.
[bold] NOTES ON RAF HABBANIYA, IRAQ [/bold]
There were numerous billets, messes and a wide range of leisure facilities including swimming pools, cinemas and theatres, sports pitches, tennis courts and riding stables. It was self-contained with its own power station, water purification plant and sewage farm. Within the base was the Civil Cantonment for the civilian workers and their families and the families of the RAF Iraq Levies. Water taken from the Euphrates for the irrigation systems enabled green lawns, flower beds and even ornamental Botanical Gardens. After World War II the families of British personnel started living at Habbaniya and a school was started.
The base at Habbaniya was used by the RAF from October 1936 to the end of May 1959, Not quite a year following the July 1958 revolution.
In recent years Habbiniya was used for the manufacture of mustard gas which was used against Iranian troops during the Iran Iraq war.
[map of the area]
[page break]
[centred] The Journey Home (Habininyah to the UK) [/centred]
On a February morning in 1943, I was sleeping in the billet after having been on a night shift when I was awoken by some excited discussion. This was caused by a sergeant from the Orderly room reading out a list of names of Operators being posted back to the UK to resume Aircrew training and my name was on the list! It was then necessary to get clearance from the OIC of Signals – so off we went! However the Officer said that as we were all experienced Ground Operators, we could not leave until replacements arrived and this took five months until July.
There were six of us with our kit bags that were put on to an open lorry to start our return journey to England. We travelled due west over the Iraqi desert. The temperature was around 40 degs C and after about four hours we stopped for refreshment and toilet relief. The stop took place at a point on the “Oil Line” known as H3.
We carried on, passing through the small town of Al Rutbah which was the only sign of any habitation that we had thus far seen. Before darkness we stopped for the night somewhere near to the Syrian/Jordanian border, having to make ourselves as comfortable as possible on our kitbags.
The next morning we resumed our journey travelling just north of the Dead Sea until we arrived in a small coastal town in Gaza just South of Tel Aviv. We were in a small transit camp with brick billets, completely unfurnished. We had to sleep on a blanket on a stone floor and in the morning we all had a large number of insect bites!
After spending a couple of days on a Mediterranean beach we embarked on a train for Cairo. It was a pleasant journey as it followed the coast and at each station there were vendors of eggs and bread. On arrival in Cairo we were taken by truck to the RAF base at Almaza, a few miles out of town. On this occasion we were accommodated in small (2 person) tents whilst we awaited the Liner which would return us to the UK.
After ten days in Almaza, we Wireless Operators were taken to Alexandria where we boarded a large Liner. Unfortunately I never knew its name however it apparently was the first ship to go through the Mediterranean since it was closed at the beginning of the war. We docked in Algiers for two days and the day after we sailed away, the Luftwaffe attacked Algiers. Our next stop was Gibralter where every night depth charges were set off at intervals as a deterrent to U-Boats. However during our five night stay there was no air raid.
The last leg of the journey was north into the Atlantic and around Ireland into the River Clyde. This was uneventful but as we sailed into Greenock it was wonderful to once again see all the green vegetation. Something that I had missed in the two years I had been away. It was now the end of August, exactly two years since I had left. There was also good news – Italy had surrendered. I was also very happy now to send a phone message to my folks via their neighbours to let them know that I was back in the UK.
I travelled by train to RAF West Kirby on the Wirral to leave my tropical kit and get a three week leave pass. The next day I had arrived home to a very happy reunion with Mother and Dad. I spent the next three weeks meeting relatives and friends recounting my travels.
[page break]
After three weeks disembarkation leave, I was posted to Number 4 Radio School at Madley near Hereford. This was where I was to resume Air Crew training as a Wireless Operator, flying Dominis and Proctors.
[photograph]
The [bold] Percival Proctor [/bold] was a British radio trainer and communications aircraft of the Second World War.
The Proctor was a single-engined, low-wing monoplane with seating for three or four, depending on the model.
[photograph]
At the start of the Second World War, many (Dragon) Rapides were impressed by the British armed forces and served under the name [bold] de Havilland Dominie [/bold]. They were used for passenger and communications duties. Over 500 further examples were built specifically for military purposes, powered by improved Gipsey[sic] Queen Engines, to bring total production to 731. The Dominies were mainly used by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy for radio and navigation training.
This was my first experience of flying and operating as a Wireless Operator and here we were flying most days for about one and a half hours carrying out various operation exercises on the radio.
RAF Madley was also a peacetime Station and the accommodation was quite good and included bunks for two members each in huts containing about sixteen personnel. Whilst I was here, I was with a number of the men that I had served with in Iraq so I was quite happy with the friends that I already knew. We used to go into the local village in the evenings, frequenting the local hostelries where I had an enjoyable time making up the[sic] for the two years I had spent overseas!
The course finished at the end of December 1943 and this is when I passed out and was promoted to Sergeant. At the same time I was also presented with my previ, the letter ‘S’ for Signals in the centre.
Previously Wireless Operators had been Air Gunners as well but that had by then been discontinued and a Wireless Operator was purely a Wireless Operator and not required to do a Gunnery course. Having qualified, I was kept on for a few more weeks assisting with the training of other personnel.
At the end of April 1944 I was posted along with some of the other Wireless operators to No 9 Advanced Flying Unit at Llandwrog in North Wales which is close to the town of Pwihelli and also close to Caenarfon. The drome here was along the coastline and planes taking off the runway immediately across the Irish sea.
[page break]
At Llandwrog we were training in Anson aircraft doing cross country exercises, out across the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man, back to the Lancashire coast and returning to base in Wales. This was during the month of May 1944 and continued into June until the course was completed on 12th June 1944. By this time, I’d had 43 hours of lectures and about 37 hours of flying time. This had been quite good experience as we had been night flying on a number of occasions and experienced flying in terrific thunderstorms. The whole aircraft having been completely encircled in a blue light including the wings! This was quite an unnerving experience.
[photograph]
On two occasions whilst stationed at Llandwrog, two of the training aircraft taking off failed to raise into the air and ditched in the sea. Each about 200 -300 metres from the shore. Fortunately the crews survived.
During my time there I was kept pretty busy however I did get into the local pub occasionally. There was a bit of a problem in that the pubs closed at 9 o’clock in the evening so you were never late getting back to camp. I was aware that there were certain local farms where airmen could go and have a bacon and egg meal and other enjoyable food but I never managed that.
Having completed the advanced w/t course, I was then posted to No. 17 Operational Training Unit at Turweston, Northamptonshire which was also part of RAF Silverstone. Turweston was the satellite drone where I spent my first period operating.
It was here at Turweston where we were all selected into different crews which was quite a hit and miss affair. This was because the Pilots were selecting more or less randomly the members of their crew from those present in the room.
I was picked by an Australian Pilot, Flight Sergeant Rob Richter. In addition to myself we had a Navigator (Alan Capey) from Stoke on Trent, a Bomb Aimer (Taffy Cross) from Llanelli, an Flight Engineer (Ossy Williams) from New Malden, a Mid Upper Gunner (Price Proctor) from Hartlepool and a Tail Gunner (Paddy McCrum) from Belfast.
It seemed strange putting together a crew in such an informal manner but thank goodness it all worked out reasonably well and we all sort of bedded down together in pretty good form. We then started operating together and flew in Vickers Wellington Mk III’s and I was now flying as a Wireless Operator no longer under training.
[page break]
[photograph]
We were accommodated in nissan huts amongst a lot of trees and I was working together with a team for the first time. As we got on so well together we were socialising each evening, visiting the local hostelries in Silverstone and Brackley. The weather at this time was perfect and I was enjoying the experience of flying with a crew in the Wellington aircraft.
The flying exercises we were doing began with circuits and landings. We then developed this on to cross country and high level bombing exercises at Wainfleet in Lincs. and also Epperstone in Notts. This included air firing for the benefit of the gunners.
At the end of July our crew were moved into the RAF base at Silverstone with more permanent accommodation than we had previously had at Turweston. It was all most comfortable and I was quite content here. We were now mainly doing cross country flights on a regular basis with these being between three and five hours in length.
In the middle of August we were sent on a semi operational patrol known as a “Nickel Raid”’ dropping foil paper to interfere with radio in enemy territory. This was a flight to Nantes in France where we unloaded the foil. This was a five hour trip. Two days later we were sent on a “Bullseye” which was a diversionary raid for the benefit of the main force. This was a trip to the coast of Holland to the town of Imjuiden.
During the time at Turweston and Silverstone we had experience of 57 hours of daytime flying and 57 hours of night flying. As part of the training we carried out bale out drill, ditching, dinghy and oxygen drills as well as procedures when lost at night. It was the Wireless Operators job to carry the radio transmitter into the dinghy which would be used to transmit any distress signals. I’m pleased to say that this situation never arose.
On 24th August 1944 we were sent on two weeks leave after which we were then posted to the Heavy Conversion Unit no. 1661 at RAF Winthorpe near Newark. The planes we used here were Mk III and V Stirlings. We carried out more cross country exercises however we were only here for one month. Our Pilot always likened the Stirling to the equivalent of flying a Double Decker Bus because the undercarriage was so high.
[page break]
[black and white photograph of a Short Stirling]
Short Stirling
On the 18th October 1944 we were posted to No. 5 Lancaster finishing school at Syerston, between Newark and Nottingham. This was our first experience of flying Lancasters. We were only here until the 8th November when we were all posted to various squadrons.
[Crest of Royal Air Force Syerston]
I and my fellow crew were posted to the RAF staion [sic] at Fulbeck which was purely a wartime air station and here we joined No. 189 squadron which is a Base that we shared with No. 59 Squadron.
I arrived at RAF Fulbeck on the 9th November 1944. The Station was situated between RAF Cranwell and the villages of Leadenham and Brant Broughton all with good pubs which we visited regularly when off duty. My home in Quadring was only 25 miles away and as I had my bicycle I went home for the evening several times. I left camp at 4pm and by 6pm I was home. At midnight I would return to camp, arriving two hours later. It was a lonely ride but I usually had a pint bottle of beer in my saddle bag for refreshment on the journey!
The daily routine in camp commenced about 9am when all crew members reported to their Sections. We were then given the days programme after which it was necessary to check your own particular equipment. At midday we all returned to either the officers or Sergeants mess for lunch. The only flying our crew did in November was a cross country and two high level bombing exercises at Wainfleet and Epperstone.
Naturally we were waiting to be called for our first operation and during the month we had the experience of being fully briefed for three trips, all being cancelled before take off which was a bit nerve wrecking.
However on the 4th December 1944 when we reported to our Sections we were informed that we would be on ‘Ops’ that night. After lunch the procedure was for all crews to attend the full Squadron briefing between 4pm and 5pm when we were told the target location and purpose of the raid.
Depending on the nature of the target, the maximum bomb load was 16,000 lbs and 2,200 gallons of fuel. With a full load of bombs/fuel, the total weight of the plane on take off was 30 tons. The flight plan gave the level at which we would be bombing and could be 8000 to 16000 feet. The more trips you did, then lower was the level at which you bombed.
[page break]
There were usually several Squadrons - about 200 aircraft on night trips. There was a rendezvous point, either Northampton or Beachy Head, for us to group together. As the whole force would be over the target for thirty minutes, each crew was given a bombing time - H plus 10 or H plus 20 etc.
It was an amazing experience in total darkness with no lights on the planes and a complete blackout of all towns and villages below. Our average take off time was 7 to 8pm. As we were not permitted to return to the mess or accommodation after lunch, we had sandwiches and flasks of tea with us.
Upon returning to base, often in the early hours of the morning we were first debriefed on the raid. After that we had a very welcome meal of bacon and eggs etc, before going off to bed.
Our first trip was to HEILBRON near STUTTGART in the RUHR to bomb the railway marshalling yards. Taking off for your first raid was a rather eerie feeling, not knowing what it would be like or if you would be coming back. However, once airborne your thoughts fall to getting the job done. After three hours we were over the target area giving us a very bumpy ride. Thankfully we were not hit and having dropped our 4000 lb bomb and a load of incendiaries, the yards were glowing with the fires raging. We returned to base safely and satisfied with our first operation.
Our next ‘Op’ was GIESSEN near FRANKFURT on 6th December where the target was once again marshalling yards.
On the 19th December we went on a long ten hour journey to GDYNIA. All went fairly well until we arrived over the target which was the docks. We should have done a ‘dog leg’ around the target (which we somehow missed!) to enable us to bomb on a northerly heading, coming out of the run over the Baltic Sea. As a consequence we were coned by searchlights and received heavy targeted gunfire from the German Navy below. Fortunately they missed us and we eventually had a successful raid. To avoid the enemy night fighters our Pilot took us down and we flew as low as possible over the Baltic and North Sea, not seeing any other activity although there had been some 200 enemy night fighters in amongst the main stream of bombers on the way home.
Two nights later we were sent to POLITZ, not far from GDYNIA which was another ten hour trip. On this occasion we were in heavy gunfire and heavy anti aircraft fire and for the first time we witnessed ‘Scarecrow’ being used by the enemy in order to create panic. Once again we were successful and set out to return home. On the journey back we were informed by radio that Lincolnshire was completely fog bound and we were diverted to RAF Milltown near Elgin. We remained there, as from 21st to 28th December 1944, Lincolnshire continued to be fog bound.
Far Right: ‘Scarecrow’
[black and white photograph of a ‘Scarecrow’ exploding]
AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL SUK12055
[page break]
On the 30th December, we were sent to Houffalize, Belgium which was a town in the middle of the Western Front, south of Liege in the Ardennes. Here we were supposed to bomb the front line which was a rather delicate operation. Although it was a relatively short trip of five hours, we needed a lot of care as to where we were bombing. We learned later that a number of the Polish army had been caught by the bombs on that occasion.
On New years Day 1945 we were sent to bomb Gravenhorst for the numerous oil targets that were situated there. Unfortunately we could not return to base and once again returned to Milltown in Scotland where we stayed for a couple of days.
On 4th January, I flew with another crew piloted by Flying Officer Martin due to the sickness of their Wireless Operator. On this occasion we went to Royan, a town in the south West of France near to Bordeaux principally to attack the Submarines of the German Navy which were on the river there. This was a seven hour journey to the mouth of the Gironde which was quite uneventful.
On the 13th January we were sent to the town of Politz again which was a ten and a half hour trip. We were successful mainly targeting oil and marshalling yards alongside the Navy. Because of the length of the trip, on the return journey the flight engineer indicated that our fuel was not sufficient to get back to base. I made contact with base to establish where we should land given our circumstances and we were directed to make for Carnaby which was the emergency landing strip near to Flamborough Head in Yorkshire. We were fortunate to land there safely as there was virtually no fuel leaf onboard.
On the 16th January I was back with my own crew and flew with them to the town of Brux. This was an oil target with a round trip time of nine and a half hours. This was over towards the Polish area.
On the 1st and 2nd February we attacked the towns of Siegen and Karlsruhe. Both these trips were bright moonlit nights which made it much easier for the German night fighters to attack us when we were silhouetted against the moon. We did experience interference from night fighters and as always the anti aircraft fire was very intense. On the Karlsruhe trip, out of our 18 aircraft we lost 4 that night.
On the 7th February we went to Ladbergen in order to attack the Dortmund-Ems canal. On this occasion we only carried 1000lb bombs with no incendiaries in the hope that we inflicted as much damage as possible to the canal.
On the 13th February we had a very long trip to Dresden. This we were told was because the Russians had driven the German Army back and it was encamped in Dresden. This was termed as a “Russian Army co-operation raid”. The American Airforce had been operational during the day and had bombed the target so by the time we were arriving around midnight, the town was ablaze.
We were successful over the target but did encounter a lot of the usual anti aircraft and fighter aircraft. On the way back to base over the Alps we were icing up and had to go down as low as possible which was a tricky operation being amongst the mountains. However we were once again able to make it back to base.
[page break]
Of course after this raid there has been much publicity about it and as the years have passed, the extent of the damage became more apparent and the subject tended to not be mentioned. However being aware of the reasons for the raid, it seemed to me to be a very satisfactory legitimate target and one that was done with extreme efficiency.
The very next night on 14th February, we attacked an oil target at Rositz which is near Leipzig. This was another nine hour journey there and back. A few nights later on 19th February we were again in the vicinity of Leipzig over the town of Bohlen and once again it was an oil target. On all these Oil targets we carried a 1000lb’er and a load of incendiaries.
On 20th February we went all the way to Gravenhorst but unfortunately the sortie was aborted and we were unable to return to base because of adverse weather conditions and we were diverted to Colerne. On 23rd February we were given a very different target in Horten which were the docks in the Oslo fjord in Norway which had a German Naval base there. This was a comparatively short trip it being only six and half hours and we experienced a lot of intense anti-aircraft fire from the German Naval gunners.
On 12th March, we carried out our first raid in daylight and joined a one thousand bomber force. The target that day was the town of Dortmund. This was quite a new experience and rather frightening being amongst so many other bombers, all at the same time and all approaching the same area. However, the raid was successful and we returned without incident in what was a five hour trip.
The next trip was to Lutzkendorf, an oil target which was quite a long journey and well into Eastern Germany. This was on 14th March and although the raid was a success, we did lose several aircraft. Once again the weather conditions in Lincolnshire prevented us from returning to base and we were diverted to Manston in Kent where there was an emergency landing strip.
Two days later on 16th March we had another oil target to attack in the town of Wurzburg. Here we experienced a lot of fighter activity and heavy anti-aircraft. We were very lucky to get back!
On 20th March we returned to raid Bohlen near Leipzig and this was another eight hour trip. On 23rd March we were sent to the town of Wesel to attack the marshalling yards there. This was a mere five and half hour trip which we carried out without incident.
On 4th April we were sent on a daylight raid to Nordhausen and this was to attack oil targets and the marshalling yards. On 23rd April we were again raiding in daylight, this time to Flensburg on the Kiel canal. This was to attack the submarine pens there however the sortie was aborted and we returned home without encountering any problems.
Three days later we were sent to Brussels to repatriate a group of ex prisoners of war. We managed to pack in twenty four in the fuselage of the aircraft and we flew to Westcott in Buckinghamshire. This made a very pleasant change and the former POW’s were naturally in good spirits.
As the war was nearing its conclusion, we found ourselves doing more training exercises for a day or two and on 6th may[sic] we were back in Brussels collecting more former POW’s and this time we brought them home to Dunsfold in Surrey.
[page break]
We repeated this some six days later on 12th May. On each occasion there were twenty six former POW’s in our fuselage. On 15th April we flew to Lille to repatriate more POW’s.
On 16th April 1945 we were sent on a grand tour of Germany to see what damage had been done. This covered the towns and cities of Bremen, Hamburg, Harburg in Bavaria, Brunswick, Cassel, Wurzburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Cologne, Osnabruck and back to base. The whole trip took some eight and a half hours. This was a very interesting and exciting flight to see just what effect the bombing had on Germany.
On 1st April 1945, the Squadron had been transferred to Bardney which is nine miles east of Lincoln. This is the RAF station from where we operated the two daylight raids and the trips to collect the former POW’s. Also on this Station was No. 9 Squadron. They specialised in carrying very large bombs which they used to bomb the hiding place of Hitler in the Mountains.
On most of the raids I was on, the anti-aircraft fire was quite intense in most places and the night fighters were usually very busy. The one frightening aspect that the defenders of certain targets used was to send up “scarecrows” this giving the impression of one of our bombers exploding and crashing in flames. How this was achieved, I am unsure but it was extremely frightening.
Our crew had the unfortunate luck of having to be changed after the third trip as our Rear Gunner had been caught sleeping twice whilst we were still over enemy territory. On the first occasion when the Skipper called to him there was no reply and I was asked to go and find out what the problem was. I found that both the turret doors were open and he was lying back on the shute into the turret with his intercom lead pulled out of the socket. I informed the Skipper that he had not replied because his intercom was out. However on the very next trip the same situation occurred again whilst we were still well over Germany. On that occasion I did report to the Skipper that he was in fact asleep. After that he was removed from the Crew and we had to have substitutes for the remainder of our trips.
After the raid on Karlsruhe we had lost four aircraft which I have already referred to but in fact on several trips one or two failed to return however I have no record of the numbers lost in my period of Operations.
In the May of 1945, the Crews were being dispersed as our tours had finished with the war coming to an end on 8th May 1945. A number of us volunteered to assist with hay making and I spent about two weeks on a farm near Gainsborough, Lincolnshire after which we were all sent on leave for a few weeks.
As we completed the tour, we were then given a rest period and at that point we expected to be going on operations in the Far East at the later stage however the war ended there on 15th August.
As I was home on leave, I received a posting to RAF Woodbridge which was an emergency landing strip in Suffolk. There I was more or less just operating in the Flight Control Tower and also assisting in the Officers and Sergeants Mess’s with their accounting systems. I had plenty of spare time and the town of Ipswich was close by. This is where [I] and my friends were going most nights.
[page break]
One of my close friends at Woodbridge was Warrant Officer Bill Patterson, a pilot who had a lady friend called Rena in Ipswich. I was told that Rena had a lady friend who said that she would like to meet me. A date was duly arranged for the 4th November 1945 for me to meet this lady on the steps of the Post Office in Ipswich at 6 o’clock. The person that turned up was a young lady called Avis Fleet.
That evening we went with Bill and Rena as a foursome for a drink in Ipswich and we had a very pleasant time. Consequently I continued to meet Avis on a regular basis and was taken to her home on Norwich Road where I met her parents and young brother Geoffrey who was only eleven at the time. We met very regularly most days as I didn’t have much to do at Woodbridge and our friendship grew until by the end of December we had agreed to get married in 1946.
Avis and I went to my parents home in Quadring on Boxing Day and spent a few days there before returning to Ipswich. At the end of December, I was promoted to Warrant Officer which made my weekly pay Six Pounds and Eleven Shillings which at the time was pretty good money.
I continued to meet Avis regularly whilst the release groups from the RAF were in number order and I was number thirty five. With the assistance of my friend Bill Patterson who was then in the Release Centre, I went for demobilisation on 3rd April 1946. I collected my civilian outfit and returned to Ipswich to meet Avis again. Of course being released at that time meant that I had a quantity of clothing coupons which helped Avis considerably in getting her wedding outfit etc.
The wedding was arranged for the 4th May 1946 and this took place at All Saints Church Ipswich. I continued to receive pay from the RAF until the end of Mat[sic] 1946 by which time I had resumed my work as an accountant with Hodgson Harris in Spalding.
[wedding photograph]
After living with my parents for 4 or 5 weeks, I managed to obtain a furnished flat in Spalding at 13 High Street which was along by the riverside.
[page break]
In 1950 when war broke out in Korea I decided to join the RAF Reserve and this meant going to No. 9 Reserve Flying School at Doncaster. I would attend there at weekends, taking part in various flying exercises. In August 1951 as part of Reserve Training, I did two weeks camp at Topcliffe in North Yorkshire and flew in Ansons on cross country exercise which also included a trip to Malta.
The last trip I did was in an Anson in a North Sea search for the Spurn Lightship. This was on 1st February 1953. After this I was retired from the Reserve as I was over the age of twenty nine.
Whilst on Operations we had nine days leave every six weeks and all received Ten Pounds per week from Lord Nuffield (The boss of Ford Motor Co). In appreciation of our services.
Returning from leave sometimes could be worrying. In our huts there would be members from 4 or 5 different Crews and returning home some would be missing from raids. On one occasion there were members of 7 Crews in our hut and on our return from one sortie, 5 were missing. This was a huge shock!
I thoroughly enjoyed all of my time with the RAF and would say that it was as good as going to a University. I realise that I am very fortunate to be still alive at the age of 92. I now have the medals of my service history including the Bomber Command Clasp for the 1939-1945 Star.
I hope my story will be of interest to whoever may read it.
[two pages from 189 Squadron Fulbeck logbook]
[page break]
[photograph of Andrew Gaunt as sub-postmaster at Pinchbeck]
Jacks[sic] WW11 story and experiences have been brought together by Andrew Gaunt former Sub Postmaster of Pinchbeck (2000 to 2014), from recordings made by Jack of his time with the RAF and his personal recollections of events and flying missions that he was sent on. Utilising Jacks[sic] log book and researching events that he has referred to.
It seemed appropriate that I brought Jacks[sic] recollections together having myself been a fellow Wireless Operator. Being a Marine Radio Officer from 1975 to 1986 and visiting many of the ports of the Middle East that Jack transited on his journey. Ironically Merchant ships no longer have a requirement to carry an R/O. This position disappeared in the 1990’s whilst the requirement to carry a W/O on aircraft was I believe removed sometime in the 1960’s. My own experiences took me frequently into areas of conflict notably the Persian/Arabian Gulf, regularly through the then dangerous Straits of Hormuz during the Iran/Iraq war and I also have my own vivid recollections of the Iranian Revolution.
Acknowledgements are made to the following sources whose photos have been used although there appear to be many copies of the same photos on different sites.
Polish Aircrew at RAF Bramcote – polishsquadronsremembered.com
Troopship SS Otranto – britisharmedforces.org
HMS Repulse – historyofwar.org
HMS Prince of Wales – dailymail.co.uk
Troopship SS Khedive Ismail – cruiselinehistory.com
Blenheim Aircraft – spitfirespares.co.uk
WW11 map of Iraq – en.wikipedia.org
Percival Proctor Aircraft – en.wikipedia.org
De Havilland Dominie Aircraft – rafyatesbury.webs.com
Avro Anson Aircraft – uboat.net
Vickers Wellington Aircraft – aviationresearch.co.uk
Short Stirling Aircraft – aoth.17.dsl.pipex.com
“Scarecrow” phenomena – awrm.gov.au
Whilst the tragic fate of Repulse and Prince of Wales is a well known WW11 event, a lesser known event but equally tragic story lies in the fate of the SS Khedive Ismail which took Jack into the Persian Gulf in late 1941.
The SS Khedive Ismail was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 12th February 1944 with the loss of 1,297 lives. The vessel Sank in just two minutes. For more information on this terrible event visit www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/SSKhediveIsmail.htm The story is also covered in The book “Passage To Destiny” by Paul Watkins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sparks in the air - Jack Smith's wartime story
Description
An account of the resource
Covers life before the war and volunteering for the RAF in August 1940. Continues with account of training as a wireless operator. Includes radio school crest and photograph of a Battle aircraft. Describes voyage from Liverpool via Cape Town then escorted by HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales to Bombay (Mumbai) and then onward to Basrah in Iraq. Eventually arrived at RAF Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and describes life and work on this station. Describes medical issues and subsequent posting to RAF Habbaniya in Iraq. Goes on to describe journey back to England overland via Gaza, Cairo and Alexandria thence by ship. Continues aircrew training at RAF Madley and Llandwrog in Wales. Includes photographs of Proctor, Dominie and Anson. Describes crewing up and starting operations on Wellington aircraft. He continues with postings to heavy conversion units and Lancaster finishing school before joining 189 Squadron at RAF Fulbeck. Describes in detail operations from December 1944 to April 1945. Mentions repatriating prisoners of war and Cook's tour to see damage to German cities. Describes life after the war including his marriage. Includes photographs of Wellington. Stirling, night bombing, wedding and page from log book..
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Gaunt
J Smith
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Twenty page printed book with b/w photographs
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BSmithJSmithJv1-2
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Spalding
England--Cheshire
England--Lancashire
England--Blackpool
England--Wiltshire
England--Liverpool
South Africa
South Africa--Cape Town
South Africa--Durban
India
India--Mumbai
Iraq
Iraq--Baṣrah
United Arab Emirates
Iraq--Ḥabbānīyah
Gaza Strip--Gaza
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Alexandria
England--Herefordshire
England--Northamptonshire
Wales--Gwynedd
England--Nottinghamshire
Germany
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Giessen (Hesse)
Poland
Poland--Gdynia
Belgium
Belgium--Houffalize
Germany--Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony)
France
France--Royan
Czech Republic
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Dortmund
Atlantic Ocean--Oslofjorden
Germany--Würzburg
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Flensburg
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Scotland--Moray
Egypt
Gaza Strip
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Czech Republic--Most
United Arab Emirates--Shāriqah (Emirate)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1937
1940-09
1940-11-04
1941-03
1941-08-31
1943-02
1943-12
1944-04
1944-06-12
1944-08-24
1944-11-09
1944-12-04
1944-12-06
1944-12-19
1944-12
1944-12-30
1945-01-01
1945-01-04
1945-01-16
1945-01-13
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-07
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-20
1945-02-23
1945-03-14
1945-03-16
1945-03-20
1945-03-23
1945-04-03
1945-04-23
1945-05-06
1945-05
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
1661 HCU
17 OTU
189 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Battle
Blenheim
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
Cook’s tour
crewing up
Dominie
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
military living conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operational Training Unit
Proctor
RAF Bramcote
RAF Compton Bassett
RAF Fulbeck
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Madley
RAF Milltown
RAF Padgate
RAF Silverstone
RAF Syerston
RAF Turweston
RAF Winthorpe
RAF Woodbridge
recruitment
Scarecrow
Stirling
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/641/32465/BSmithJSmithJv1.1.pdf
06d252abf25757870b967f73da7e1fc8
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Smith, Jack
John George Smith
J G Smith
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Smith, JG
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with John 'Jack' Smith (1921 -2019) and his memoirs. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 189 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Smith and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sparks in the air - Jack Smith's wartime story
Description
An account of the resource
Second version. Covers life before the war and volunteering for the RAF in August 1940. Continues with account of training as a wireless operator. Includes radio school crest and photograph of a Battle aircraft. Describes voyage from Liverpool via Cape Town then escorted by HMS Repulse and Prince of Wales to Bombay (Mumbai) and then onward to Basrah in Iraq. Eventually arrived at RAF Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and describes life and work on this station. Describes medical issues and subsequent posting to RAF Habbaniya in Iraq. Goes on to describe journey back to England overland via Gaza, Cairo and Alexandria thence by ship. Continues aircrew training at RAF Madley and Llandwrog in Wales. Includes photographs of Proctor, Dominie and Anson. Describes crewing up and starting operations on Wellington aircraft. He continues with postings to heavy conversion units and Lancaster finishing school before joining 189 Squadron at RAF Fulbeck. Describes in detail operations from December 1944 to April 1945. Mentions repatriating prisoners of war and Cook's tour to see damage to German cities. Describes life after the war including his marriage. Includes photographs of Wellington. Stirling, night bombing, wedding and page from log book.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
A Gaunt
J Smith
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Twenty-eight page printed document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BSmithJSmithJv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Spalding
England--Cheshire
England--Lancashire
England--Blackpool
England--Wiltshire
England--Liverpool
South Africa
South Africa--Cape Town
South Africa--Durban
India
India--Mumbai
Iraq
Iraq--Baṣrah
United Arab Emirates
Iraq--Ḥabbānīyah
Gaza Strip--Gaza
Egypt--Cairo
Egypt--Alexandria
England--Herefordshire
England--Northamptonshire
Wales--Gwynedd
England--Nottinghamshire
Germany
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Giessen (Hesse)
Poland
Poland--Gdynia
Belgium
Belgium--Houffalize
Germany--Wolfsburg (Lower Saxony)
France
France--Royan
Czech Republic
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Dortmund
Atlantic Ocean--Oslofjorden
Germany--Würzburg
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Flensburg
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Scotland--Moray
Egypt
Gaza Strip
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Czech Republic--Most
United Arab Emirates--Shāriqah (Emirate)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1937
1940-09
1940-11-04
1941-03
1941-08-31
1943-02
1944-04
1944-06-12
1944-08-24
1944-11-09
1944-12-04
1944-12-06
1944-12-19
1944-12
1944-12-30
1945-01-01
1945-01-04
1945-01-16
1945-01-13
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-07
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-20
1945-02-23
1945-03-14
1945-03-16
1945-03-20
1945-03-23
1945-04-03
1945-04-23
1945-05-06
1945-05
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
1661 HCU
17 OTU
189 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Battle
Blenheim
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
Cook’s tour
crewing up
Dominie
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
love and romance
military living conditions
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operational Training Unit
Proctor
RAF Bramcote
RAF Compton Bassett
RAF Fulbeck
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Madley
RAF Milltown
RAF Padgate
RAF Silverstone
RAF Syerston
RAF Turweston
RAF Winthorpe
RAF Woodbridge
recruitment
Stirling
training
Wellington
wireless operator
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Filiputti, Angiolino
Angiolino Filiputti
Alfonsino Filiputti
A Filiputti
Description
An account of the resource
127 items. The collection consists of a selection of works created by Alfonsino ‘Angiolino’ Filiputti (1924-1999). A promising painter from childhood, Angiolino was initially fascinated by marine subjects but his parents’ financial hardships forced an end to his formal education after completing primary school. Thereafter, he took up painting as an absorbing pastime. Angiolino depicted some of the most dramatic and controversial aspects of the Second World War as seen from the perspective of San Giorgio di Nogaro, a small town in the Friuli region of Italy. Bombings, events reported by newspapers, broadcast by the radio or spread by eyewitnesses, became the subject of colourful paintings, in which news details were embellished by his own rich imaginings. Each work was accompanied by long pasted-on captions, so as to create fascinating works in which text and image were inseparable. After the war, however, interest in his work declined and Angiolino grew increasingly disenchanted as he lamented the lack of recognition accorded his art, of which he was proud.
The work of Angiolino Filiputti was rediscovered thanks to the efforts of Pierluigi Visintin (San Giorgio di Nogaro 1946 – Udine 2008), a figurehead of the Friulan cultural movement, author, journalist, screenwriter and translator of Greek and Latin classical works into the Friulan language. 183 temperas were eventually displayed in 2005 under the title "La guerra di Angiolino" (“Angiolino’s war”.) The exhibition toured many cities and towns, jointly curated by the late Pierluigi Visintin, the art critic Giancarlo Pauletto and Flavio Fabbroni, member of the Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione (Institute for the history of the resistance movement in the Friuli region).
The IBCC Digital Archive would like to express its gratitude to Anna and Stefano Filiputti, the sons of Angiolino Filipputi, for granting permission to reproduce his works. The BCC Digital Archive is also grateful to Alessandra Bertolissi, wife of Pierluigi Visintin, Alessandra Kerservan, head of the publishing house Kappa Vu and Pietro Del Frate, mayor of San Giorgio di Nogaro.
Originals are on display at
Biblioteca comunale di San Giorgio di Nogaro
Piazza Plebiscito, 2
33058 San Giorgio di Nogaro (UD)
ITALY
++39 0431 620281
info.biblioteca@comune.sangiorgiodinogaro.ud.it
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Filiputti, A-S
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Alfonso ‘Liviano’ Zamparo being tortured
Description
An account of the resource
A screaming naked man is suspended across a cell by ropes tied around his wrists, looped over a hook on the wall, and his ankles, looped through the bars of a window. The rope threaded through the window is held by a uniformed figure. A bucket is visible in the corner of the cell. The walls of the cell are flecked with blood stains.
Inscriptions read “195”; signed by the author; caption reads “PALMANOVA 19 Dicembre 1944 – 17 Febbraio 1945, “Liviano” dottor Alfonso Zamparo dell’Osoppo, impiccato per 5 ore alle celle No 1 completamente nudo, dal suo racconto: fui aganciato e spinto verso l’entrata della cella, la corda passò sopra la porta e fissata all’esterno, sul catenaccio, cosi appeso coi piedi alti sul pavimento, un calvario, calci pugni vergate, colpi di moschetto che mi lacerarono la carne, mi lanciarono a dosso secchi di acqua gelata, e calda, e bere dense soluzioni di sale. Mi spedirono a Dakau [Dachau] il 24 Febbraio”.
Caption translates as: “Palmanova, 19 December 1944-17 February 1945. Doctor Alfonso Zamparo (also known as “Liviano”) of Osoppo was hung for five hours in cell number 1. He was completely naked. From his own account: I was released from the ropes and pushed towards the entrance of the cell. The rope passed above the door and then secured outside, on the sliding lock. Then, I was hung with my feet above the floor. It was an ordeal: kicks, punches, canes, and musket shots lacerated my flesh. They threw at me buckets of ice-cold water, then hot, and I was given dense salt solutions to drink. I was sent to Dachau on the 24 February.”
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PFilliputtiA16010077
Language
A language of the resource
ita
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Angiolino Filiputti
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca Campani
Alessandro Pesaro
Helen Durham
Giulia Banti
Maureen Clarke
Subject
The topic of the resource
World War (1939-1945)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Italy--Palmanova
Italy
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
1945-01
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
arts and crafts
Resistance
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/606/32116/BMayBJMayBJv10001.1.jpg
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
May, Ben John
B J May
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
May, BJ
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with Ben May (1925 -2018, 1894955 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 420 Squadron. Also includes a short memoir and a photograph.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Ben May and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Flight Engineer, 420 Squadron RCAF, Bomber Command, RAF, WWII
Regarding myself and my RAF years, I was only 13 when the war started, evacuated in 1940 to all places the midlands, between Birmingham and Coventry. I didn't stay long though and returned to my home in Thanet in time to watch the second half of the Battle of Britain. I joined the ATC in 1942 and volunteered for aircrew when I was 17. I was called up in Feh. 1944 as F/E u/t and sent to Locking after ITW in Cornwall. Then on to St. Athan, passing out on my 19th. birthday.
Spot of leave, then attached to the R.C.A.F. who were short of flight engineers,
joined my crew and after HCU and posted to 420 Squadron in December 1944. I see from my log book that my first flight in a Halifax was on Jan 2nd. 1945..! We went on to do 11 op's before the end of the war, but as we all know now, the war was virtually over by then. However, we didn't know that and they were still shooting at us, and we saw an ME 163, also watched a V2 fired from Belgium whilst on our way home early one morning.
Among our op's were one or two quite spectacular ones such as the long flight down to Leipzig in daylight on April 1Oth. , and the Heligoland raid on the 18th. This was remembered mostly for the Lancaster which went in several thousand feet below, and just in front of us dropping a 'grand slam' bomb on the intersection of the two runways. Also for flying through the wreckage of a Halifax which exploded just in front of us. Other things of note were three trips to Hamburg in one week, and a very hairy trip to Munster on March 25th for which we took MZ 620, the spare Hally from 425 squadron, ours going u/s at the last moment. This was due for an engine change and we went over the target some minutes after, and quite a bit below the others picking up a few holes in the process.
I also note that we had two fighter encounters on the night of April 8th. and had to land away from base. ,
After V-E day I was remustered and trained as fitter/marine with the intention of joining air/sea rescue services in the Pacific for the expected invasion of Japan.
The atom bomb however put an end to this and I finished my service in 1947 on
marine-craft in Singapore.
My business life since then has been in photography - firstly commercial work in general, then a spell in the aviation world but unwanted after the S.R.53 which I was busy with was cancelled in 1957.
I returned to my own neck of the woods and started my own business which has kept us in groceries ever since.
I did a lot of aviation pictures, including concorde air-to-air and still fly with a friend who owns a Cessna. I also still fly radio controlled models which keep the old reflexes in trim. One final thing - to complete the picture so to speak, I took one of my models up to Yorkshire and flew it from my old runway at Tholthorpe..!
That's enough bull, I'll attach a few pictures which you might find interesting, the first is my crew, our skipper Les Rush from Vancouver is in the middle and yours truly in the long streak on the right. ·
[black and white photograph]
Rush Crew, 420 Squadron RCAF
Then a couple of bombing up' PT-R and a couple of me, one at the FIE panel, and one by the wheel (big weren't they ?)
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Flight Engineer, 420 Squadron RCF, Bomber Command, RAF WWII
Description
An account of the resource
Ben May's life and service as a flight engineer on 420 Squadron flying Halifax from January 1945. Relate life before volunteering for aircrew and being called up for the RAF in February 1944. Provides short description of training and joining 420 Squadron at the end of 1944. Describes some notable events during operations, seeing Me-163 and V-2 launched from Belgium. Mentions notable operations and events including being engaged by fighters on two occasions. Was planned to go to the Pacific but was cancelled after Japanese surrender. Ended career in 1947 on a marine craft unit in Singapore. Describes life after the war as an aviation photographer. End with photograph of seven airmen standing in lien in front of a Halifax, captioned 'Rush Crew, 420 Squadron RCAF'. Ben May is on the right.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
B J May
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page printed document with b/w photograph
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BMayBJMayBJv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Somerset
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Germany
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
England--Yorkshire
England--Cornwall (County)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1944-02
1944-12
1945-01-02
1945-04-10
1945-03-25
1945-04-08
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
420 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
flight engineer
Grand Slam
Halifax
Lancaster
Me 163
RAF Locking
RAF St Athan
RAF Tholthorpe
V-2
V-weapon
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Crompton, Norman John Russel
N J R Crompton
Description
An account of the resource
15 items. Collection contains correspondence between Lieutenant C L Fackrell and his daughter, identity and coupon documents and a photograph of Pilot Officer N J Compton's officers refresher course.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Norman Russell John Crompton and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Crompton, NJR
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BY AIR MAIL
AIR MAIL LETTER CARD
[postmark]
[postage stamp]
[ink stamps]
Miss M. Fackrell
Milford House,
108 Main Road.
SIDCUP, Kent
England.
[ink stamp]
Fackrell
[page break]
[underlined] R.A. Depot Deolali [/underlined]
My Darling Margaret,
Once more I am writing you a letter for Christmas & the New Year & once more I must say that ever such a lot of things have happened since I wrote the last one.
Mummy has told me all about your holiday with Auntie at Wootton & says you were very good & went to Sunday School & that you sing very nicely.
Do you like your dancing class? I hope you will dance nicely for me when I come home.
I am glad you are a happy girlie: I have learnt that one of the most important things in our life is to be [underlined] always [/underlined] happy & bright, & to make other people happy. Keep smiling and only do good things.
It is cold here now and lots of poor people have no warm clothes to put on & we feel very sorry for them: I hope you have some nice woolly clothes.
[page break]
The postman is waiting to take this – he says it must go now or it will not get to you in time for Christmas – so I cannot write much more.
Everyone who sees your photo says what a nice girlie you are & I tell them that you look nice because you are always good. You know, there were once two little girls: one was naughty & bad-tempered & did not obey her Mummy and so she grew up very ugly & nobody liked her; the other was kind & happy & always helped her Mummy and she grew up very beautiful & had lots of friends.
We have got a nice big doggie here now: he is like an Airedale & is brown. He likes cakes & buns & shakes hands with you. He is a nice dog & trots along behind his master’s bicycle.
What do they have in your shops now? I expect all the shop windows
[page break]
will be very bright for Christmas with sweets & toys & coloured lights; I hope that next Christmas I shall be able to come with you & look at all the shops and we will have a good time together with Mummy & Gran’ma.
Till then, my pet, goodbye,
and God Bless you
From your loving
Daddy.
Xmas 44.
[page break]
Written in English
Sender’s
No. 11168
Rank Lieut
Name Fackrell.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from C L Fackrell to his daughter Margaret
Description
An account of the resource
Writing for Christmas and the new year. Recalls news of her that mother had passed on to him. Mentions it is cold where he is and mentions the photograph he has of her. Mentions he has a dog and sends seasons greetings.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
C L Fackrell
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two page handwritten letter and envelope
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EFackrellHodel441225-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
British Army
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Kent
England--London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
childhood in wartime
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2180/38310/S102SqnRAF19170809v10002.2.pdf
7de236dd7c2d3ae2dbe1de6bac5ac35c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
102 Squadron Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Thirty-one items.
The collection concerns material from the 102 Squadron Association and contains part of a Tee Emm magazine, documents, photographs, accounts of Ceylonese in the RAF, a biography, poems, a log book, cartoons, intelligence and operational reports, an operations order and an account by a United States Army Air Force officers secret trip to Great Britain to arrange facilities for American forces.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Harry Bartlett and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-05-23
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
102 Squadron Association
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A dedication to AVM Ekanayake Edward (Rohan) Amerasekera DFC & Bar, R.Cy.A.F
Description
An account of the resource
Biography of Rohan Amerasekera. Consist of early life, war service in the RAF including training eventually as as a navigator. Operational tours on 158 Squadron and 35 Squadrons. Lists his crew. Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross in January 1944. Final operational tour with 640 Squadron, lists two crew he flew with. Returned to 158 Squadron and awarded bar to DFC in may 1945. Continues with some personal recollections, promotions and courses. Concludes with return to Sri Lanka and service in the Royal Ceylonese Air Force.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles M Ameresekera
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-09-30
1941-11-03
1941-12-13
1942-02-20
1942-05-02
1942-09-26
1942-11-30
1943-06-13
1943-07-29
1943-09
1943-10-04
1943-11
1944-01-29
1944-08-16
1944-10
1944-11
1944-12
1945
1946
1951
1953
1955
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Sri Lanka
Great Britain
England--London
England--Berkshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mönchengladbach
France
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Germany--Neuss
France--Calais
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany--Essen
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Chemnitz
England--Huntingdonshire
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five page printed document
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
S102SqnRAF19170809v10002
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
158 Squadron
35 Squadron
640 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
navigator
pilot
RAF Abingdon
RAF Graveley
RAF Lissett
training
Whitley
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2180/38312/S102SqnRAF19170809v10006.1.pdf
962c58b2f564a417acc1720c99f2e0f6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
102 Squadron Collection
Description
An account of the resource
Thirty-one items.
The collection concerns material from the 102 Squadron Association and contains part of a Tee Emm magazine, documents, photographs, accounts of Ceylonese in the RAF, a biography, poems, a log book, cartoons, intelligence and operational reports, an operations order and an account by a United States Army Air Force officers secret trip to Great Britain to arrange facilities for American forces.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Harry Bartlett and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-05-23
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
102 Squadron Association
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
AVM Ekanayake Edward (Rohan) Amerasekera DFC & Bar, R.Cy.A.F.
Description
An account of the resource
Biography of Rohan Amerasekera. Consist of early life, war service in the RAF including training eventually as as a navigator. Operational tours on 158 Squadron and 35 Squadrons. Lists his crew. Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross in January 1944. Final operational tour with 640 Squadron, lists two crew he flew with. Returned to 158 Squadron and awarded bar to DFC in may 1945. Continues with some personal recollections, promotions and courses. Concludes with return to Sri Lanka and service in the Royal Ceylonese Air Force. Notes that he was the first Ceylonese Commander of the Royal Ceylon Air Force and he died in 1974.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Charles M Ameresekere
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-09-30
1941-11-03
1941-12-13
1942-02-20
1942-05-02
1942-09-26
1942-11-30
1943-06-13
1943-07-29
1943-09
1943-10-04
1943-11
1944-01-29
1944-08-16
1944-10
1944-11
1944-12
1945
1946
1951
1953
1955
1962
1970
1974-03-20
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Sri Lanka
Great Britain
England--London
England--Berkshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mönchengladbach
France
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Germany--Neuss
France--Calais
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany--Essen
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Chemnitz
England--Huntingdonshire
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
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Text
Format
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Four page printed document
Conforms To
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Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
S102SqnRAF19170809v10006
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
158 Squadron
35 Squadron
640 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
navigator
pilot
RAF Abingdon
RAF Graveley
RAF Lissett
training
Whitley
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1385/25767/SBakerDA19210428v20162-0001.2.jpg
2002dd8d34751e2bc4f31e185a99d34f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1385/25767/SBakerDA19210428v20162-0002.2.jpg
b1aee74b1128ed264d8477f206d919ae
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Baker, Donald Arthur
D A Baker
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-11-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Baker, DA
Description
An account of the resource
187 items. Donald Arthur Baker (b. 1921) travelled from Southern Rhodesia to England in 1940 to join the Royal Air Force. Trained as a pilot in 1941 he was operational with 144 Squadron at RAF North Luffenham flying Hampdens. He was shot down on 5 November 1941 and remained a prisoner of war mostly in Stalag Luft 3 until 1945. He return to farm in Southern Rhodesia after the war. The collection contains letters to his mother throughout the war as well as other correspondence and documents including his prisoner of war log with photographs and notes.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by June Baker Maree and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Access Rights
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Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Kriegsgefangenenpost
[rubber stamped] GEPRUFT[?] 56
Mit Luft Post Par Avion
[date stamp]
[rubber stamped]
[inserted] AB KAIRO
25 PFGS[?] [inserted]
MRS C. BAKER
CHARLTON
INYAZURA
SOUTHERN RHODESIA
SOUTH AFRICA
[page break]
29:3:1944
My Dearest Mother, was very pleased to receive four letters from you yesterday, and also a few from England. Yours were dated Oct 18th & 24th, Dec 21st & Jan 3rd. I don’t expect you will manage to get to England for a year or so after the war as doubtless all passages have been [indecipherable word]. It is just possible we shall be sent home direct without calling in at England, ‘though I don’t think that very likely. Has[?] the Govt. stated anything definite yet about land settlement? Anthony is keeping fit & wishes to be remembered to you. I hear Harry sports a moustache now. Much love to you all dear mother from Donald.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Donald Baker to his mother
Description
An account of the resource
Note that letter was undated but thinks it was December 1944. Says he was thinking of them on their birthdays. Asks them about their holiday in Cape Town and arranging for him to be sent a sweater. Speculates on future and catches up with other gossip. Writes he is keeping fit and has started his six weeks cooking, which was a challenge with 12 of them to be fed. Mentions weather.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
D A Baker
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Format
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Handwritten prisoner of war letter form
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SBakerDA19210428v20162
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe--Manicaland Province
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
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Jan Waller
prisoner of war
Stalag Luft 3
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/544/19192/SHookerFJ1805487v10027.2.jpg
c907030f1d02a9dcadb1a8bf7253a2f0
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Hooker, Fred
Fred J Hooker
F J Hooker
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Hooker, FJ
Description
An account of the resource
31 items. Two oral history interviews with Sergeant Fred Hooker (b. 1924, 1850487 Royal Air Force) and his scrapbook containing photographs and documents. He flew operations as a mid-upper gunner with 102 Squadron and became a prisoner of war on 12 September 1944.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-05-25
2017-08-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Stalag Luft 7 Bankau Poland
Description
An account of the resource
A map of Stalag Luft 7 drawn by D G Gray and dated December 1944. It shows a compound of huts, one of tents and one under construction. The Russians have a separate, smaller compound as do the Germans.
Includes measurements, direction indicator, hut numbers etc.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
D G Gray
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One hand drawn map with labels
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SHookerFJ1805487v10027
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Wehrmacht
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Poland
Poland--Tychowo
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
aircrew
prisoner of war
Stalag Luft 7
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1895/35627/SGillK1438901v20027.2.pdf
4e1b16d68628369bb390ad6492ed4bdf
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Gill, Kenneth
K Gill
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-09
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Gill, K
Description
An account of the resource
One hundred and sixty-four items plus another one hundred and fifteen in two sub-ciollections. The collection concerns Flying Officer Kenneth Gill DFC (1922 - 1945, 1438901, 155097 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and family and other correspondence. <br />He flew operations as a navigator with 9 Squadron before starting a second tour with 617 Squadron. He was killed 21 March 1945 having completed 45 operations.<br /><br />The collection also contains two albums. <br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2114">Kenneth Gill. Album One</a><br /><a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2117">Kenneth Gill. Album Two</a><br /><br />Additional information on Kenneth Gill is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/108654/">IBCC Losses Database.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Gill and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
My name is Derek Gill and I was born on the 20th April 1944 (same birthday as Adolph Hitler). So I am 67 years old.
I was 11 months old when my father was killed on Wednesday 21 March 1945.
My father F/O Kenneth Gill DFC was born on the 19 November 1922, when he died he was 22yrs and 4 months old.
He joined the RAF on 18 June 1941 aged 18 as a Volunteer Reserve and after initial training was transferred by Troopship on 6 Jan 1942 arriving in [inserted] Pan American Flying School Florida [/inserted] Monkton USA on the 20 January 1942 for initial Flying Training and then transferred to Canada in May 1942 until he qualified as an Air Navigator on 11 Sept 1942. [inserted] EMPIRE TRAINING COURSE. [/inserted]
On his return to the UK he joined No 29 Operational Training Unit at RAF Station North Luffenham flying Wellington Mk3's during December 1942. His first Operation was on the night of 25 Feb 1943 bombing Clermont Ferrand in France this operation took 7 hrs.
In March 1943 he was transferred to 1660 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Swinderby flying Halifax Mk5's and then Lancaster's.
His second Operation was in a Lancaster Mk3 on the night of 18 April 1943 flying to La Spezia in Italy Mine Laying this flight lasted 9.5 Hrs.
On 20 April 1943 he was transferred to No 9 Squadron at RAF Bardney where he flew 26 Operational Flights with the same crew except for 3 ops Pilot F/LT Derbyshire, Flight Eng. Sgt Sullivan, Navigator Sgt Gill, Wireless Operator Sgt Overend, Bomb Aimer/Front Gunner Sgt Oakes, Mid Upper Gunner Sgt Cole and Rear Gunner Sgt Parsons. In Lancaster's. Targets were: Dortmund, Duisberg, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Essen, Wuppertal, Dusseldorf, Bochum, Oberhausen, Krefeld, Mulheim (returned early as Port outer was u/s), Gelsenkirchen, Cologne (Returned early rear turret u/s bomb load jettisoned, 21 miles from target, whilst testing rear turret a twin engine enemy aircraft made three attacks), Cologne, Essen, Milan, Nurnburg, Nurnberg(54 flak holes), Rheydt, Berlin, Munich, Kassel, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Berlin. completed on 19 November 1943 his 21st Birthday.
During these Operations was commissioned from Flt Sgt to P/O. on the 27 June 1943
On the 8 December 1943 he was awarded the DFC for his service with No 9 Squadron.
27 Dec 1943 promoted to F/O.
After completing the above missions he was transferred to No 5 Lancaster Finishing School at RAF Syerston as a Navigation Instructor (Bringing new
[page break]
Navigators up to speed on the different navigational aids being used on the Lancaster and also retraining older Navigators who where [sic] having difficulties with the new innovations.
Whilst at Syerston he met up with F/Lt Gumbley (pilot) and F/O Barnett (Flt Engineer) and at the end of their time at Syerston they were asked to join No 617 Squadron, so went around and completed the rest of the crew asking people who they new [sic] that had completed a Tour and were training new crews.
On the 27 September the New crew were transferred to No 617 Sqd RAF Woodhall Spa (Commanded by W/Cdr J B (Willie) Tait)
Pilot: Flt/Lt B.A. Gumbley DFM RNZAF Aged 29 Hawks Bay NZ.
Flt Eng: F/O E.A. Barnett (Men in Desp) Aged 21 Thorp Bay Essex.
Navigator: F/O K. Gill DFC Aged 22 Halton Leeds.
W/Op: P/O S.V. Grimes Aged 22 Suffolk.
B/A: F/O J.C. Randon Aged 23 Chesterfield Derbyshire.
A/G Mid Upper: F/Sgt J. Penswick Aged 23 London.
A/G Rear: F/Sgt G Bell Aged 23 Hull.
After training with the other crews from 30 Sept 1944 to 26 Oct 1944 they went on their first Operation with 617 flying to Lossiemouth and on the next day took off with a Tallboy Deep penetration 12000 lb Bomb, on board to attack the Tirpitz. They flew to Tromso Fjord (Norway) and after 4 runs over the Target decided that the cloud made accurate bombing impossible. For this operation the Mid-upper turret was removed in order to install the extra fuel tanks required to achieve the range to make the return flight. Even so they landed at Skatska (Coastal Command Airfield) in the Shetlands to top up with fuel as they had not allowed for returning with the Bomb on board (C/O was not impressed as if the bomb had gone off it could have wiped out the airfield), then flew to Lossiemouth returning to Woodhall Spa on the 30 Oct 1944. (Bringing the Tallboy all the way back). Top secret and scarce) 12 hrs
Only a crew of 6 as no mid-upper turret.
On the 11 November 617 and 9 Sqd returned to Lossiemouth and on the 12 flew back to Tromso Fjord and sunk the Tirpitz, bombing at 08:43 from 15400ft a Tallboy was seen to enter the water about 20 yds off the Tirpitz which capsized. (Still a crew of 6 but on this trip the mid-upper gunner was in the rear turret) 12.15 hrs
[page break]
Full Crew of 7
8 Dec Urft Dam. Not bombed as cloud cover was over target.
205 Lancs from 5 Grp carrying 1000lb bombs and 19 from 617 carrying Tallboys. 3.35 hrs
11 Dec Urft Dam Bombed from 6000 ft (Tallboy) could not see bomb burst because of cloud aircraft received minor damage to Tailplain. 5.30 hrs
15 Dec Ijmuiden E&R Boat Pens Bombed at 10000 ft hit NW corner of the Pens. 2.35 hrs
21 Dec Politz-Oil Refineries Bombed at 16900 ft (Tallboy) significant damage to target, landed at Metheringham using FIDO, transferred to Base by road and collected Aircraft on 23 Dec after fog had lifted. 9.45 hrs
24 Dec Command of 617 transferred from W/Cdr Tait to G/C Fauquier
29 Dec Rotterdam E&R Boat Pens Bombed at 16660 ft (Tallboy) Bomb unobserved owing to smoke, a good many near misses, no direct hits seen. 2.50 hrs
30 Dec Ijmuiden E&R Boat Pens Solid cloud over target did not bomb.
Tallboy returned. 2.20 hrs
31 Dec Horten (Oslo Fjord) Cruisers Kolin and Emden Ships travelling at up to 30 Knots difficult to bomb accurately, later on Crews were forced to bomb by moonlight or aim at the source of Flak some crews returned with their Tallboys. Bombed at 00.15 hrs from 10200 ft (Tallboy) near miss on port side of ship, ship appeared to stop. Later identified as a 10000 ton transport ship.
7.45 hrs.
3 Feb 1945 Pootershaven E&R Boat Pens (Midget Submarines) Bombed at 1552 from 13500 ft (Tallboy), bombed into smoke over the aiming point, Aircraft hit by Flak, fuselage and rear turret damaged, not seriously, no casualties.
2.50 hrs.
[page break]
6 Feb Bielefeld (Vielesible Viaduct) Aborted Aircraft targeted by accurate Flak on return route no damage suffered
5.45 hrs
14 Feb Bielefeld (Vielesible Viaduct) Aborted Flak encountered as the aircraft crossed the Rhine.
4.50 hrs
22 Feb Bielefeld (Vielesible (Viaduct) Target comprised two parallel twin track Railway Viaducts. Bombed at 16.10 (Second run Tallboy) 13700 ft. 3 arches at the western viaduct collapsed, but rail link remained on the other two tracks.
4.30 hrs.
24 Feb Dortmund-Ems Canal Aborted Recalled 30 miles from target because of unfavourable weather conditions.
4.40 hrs
13 Mar Bielefeld (Vieiesible Viaduct) Aborted 2 Aircraft were B1 (Specials) carrying the new 22000 lb Grand Slam Bomb (G/C Fauquier & S/L Calder). The aircraft were modified to carry the Grand Slam, Bomb doors removed and the fairings of the bomb bay, deletion of the Mid-Upper Turret and also the Main Radio and the Wireless Operator
4.20 hrs
14 Mar Bielifeld [sic] (Vieiesible Viaduct) Bombed at 1628 hrs from 11600 ft (Tallboy) Bomb believed to be a direct hit, S/L Calder Grand Slam falling 30 yds from viaduct (G/C Fauquier aircraft went u/s at start up. 460 ft of both Viaducts Destroyed Rail link severed completely.
5.00 hrs
19 Mar Arnberg Viaduct Bombed at 10.54 hrs from 12700 ft (Grand Slam) Bomb fell 50 yds south of aiming point as Pilots Bomb Aiming Indicator was not recording the Bomb Aimers alterations. Two or Three Spans of the Viaduct were brought down.
5.20 hrs
21 Mar Arbergen Railway Bridge near Bremen. The bridge was a double track Rail link across the river Weser 200 yds long.
[page break]
On this occasion Flak in the area was more intense and a number of Aircraft were damaged. A number of Me262 Jet Fighters were also encountered after bombing. The Target was rendered unusable although the main bridge was still intact.
The aircraft was a B1 Special although it was carrying a Tallboy, on this mission there were only 5 crew members onboard.
The Aircraft was hit by Flak during its run up to the target and dropped out of formation, causing F/Lt Price to take avoiding action. British records state that the aircraft received a direct hit and dived down out of control.
Witnesses on the ground gave a different account "The aircraft went down passing over the village of Okel heading in the direction of Riede at a hight [sic] of 2000ft. They do not mention that the aircraft was on fire at this stage, but state that it seemed to be flying extremely slow. As it flew over Riede the locale Flak Battery went into action, hitting one of the engines and setting the fuselage on fire. The aircraft made a 180 degree turn back towards Okel and crashed into a field. The witnesses said the aircraft did not explode immediately, but before it could be reached there was a violent explosion, reducing the aircraft to fragments and creating a crater 50ft deep by 100ft diameter.
The RAF Missing Research and Enquiry Service failed to find any German documentation regarding the incident or trace any burial for the crew. The identity of Fl/Lt Randon was established from a document found at the crash site leaving no doubt about the identity of the aircraft. Having no known grave the crew are commemorated on the RAF Memorial at Runnymede, my fathers name appears on Panel 267 and also on the 617 Sqd Memorial at Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire.
The Crew Comprised of:-
Pilot F/Lt B.A. Gumbly DFM RNZAF,
Flt Eng F/O A.E. Barnett (Men in Desp)
Navigator F/O K. Gill DFC CdG
Bomb Aimer F/Lt J.C. Randon
Rear-Gunner P/O G. Bell.
F/O K. Gill Total Flying Time Day Time 388.10hrs (74.45 Operations)
Night Time 279.15hrs (171.30 Operations)
Total Time 667.25hrs (246.15 Operations)
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Biography of Kenneth Gill by son Derek
Description
An account of the resource
Gives service history of Kenneth Gill including training in Canada as navigator, training in England, operations on 9 Squadron with list of his crew. Details targets attacked. Commissioned and awarded Distinguished Flying Cross. After tour on Lancaster finishing school transferred to 617 Squadron, lists crew. Details operations and targets while on 617 Squadron. Includes attack on Tirpitz with tallboy bombs and list other attacks with this weapon. Describes final operation where Me 262s encountered but his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and crashed when unreleased weapons exploded, All crew killed. Lists crew.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
D Gill
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-04-20
1941-06-08
1942-01-06
1941-01-20
1942-09-11
1943-02-25
1943-03
1943-04-20
1943-11-19
1943-06-27
1943-12-27
1944-09-27
1944-10
1944-11-11
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-03-21
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
New Brunswick--Moncton
United States
Florida
France
France--Clermont-Ferrand
England--Rutland
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
Italy
Italy--La Spezia
Germany
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Cologne
Italy--Milan
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Munich
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Leipzig
Scotland--Moray
Norway
Norway--Tromsø
Germany--Euskirchen (Kreis)
Netherlands
Netherlands--IJmuiden
Poland
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Atlantic Ocean--Oslofjorden
Germany--Bielefeld
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Bremen
Great Britain
New Brunswick
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five page printed document
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SGillK1438901v20027
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011
Contributor
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Sue Smith
1660 HCU
29 OTU
617 Squadron
9 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
crash
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight engineer
Grand Slam
Halifax
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
killed in action
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Lancaster Mk 3
Me 262
memorial
navigator
Operation Catechism (12 November 1944)
Operational Training Unit
pilot
RAF Bardney
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Swinderby
RAF Syerston
RAF Woodhall Spa
Tallboy
Tirpitz
training
Wellington
wireless operator
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1092/11551/PReptonB1801.1.jpg
b905c6ea618c945392e7963f17d5d221
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1092/11551/AReptonB180306.2.mp3
262211d521d81a32c139676920347e53
Dublin Core
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Title
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Repton, Betty
Betty Repton nee Jackson
B Repton
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Betty Repton (b. 1922). She served as a stenographer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force at RAF Coningsby.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-09
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Repton, B
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
EM: Just talk in a minute. Stop worrying.
DK: I’ll just, I’ll just introduce this. David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre.
BR: Just interrupting. Have you —
DK: Don’t worry. Yeah. That’s ok. Don’t worry.
BR: Have you seen many elderly ladies like me?
DK: Yes. Yes. Three.
BR: Three.
DK: You’re my third.
BR: Oh.
DK: You’re my third. So, yes.
BR: And are they all with it?
DK: Oh, yes. Yes. Just like yourself.
BR: Oh yes. Yes. Just like yourself.
EM: Just like you.
DK: Now —
EM: Just keep quiet a minute.
DK: That’s ok.
EM: He’s just doing a bit of recording.
DK: Sorry.
EM: Just be quiet a minute. Yeah.
DK: So I’m interviewing, Betty Repton isn’t it?
EM: Yeah.
DK: Betty Repton, at her home, don’t worry about this, the 6th of March 2018. If I just, can I just move this over?
EM: Yeah. Do you want a maiden name?
DK: Yes. Could do.
EM: Jackson.
DK: Oh. So, that’s Betty Jackson [pause] That looks alright. Yeah.
EM: Ignore that.
DK: Ignore that. Pretend, pretend it’s not there. If I, if I lean over it’s just making sure it’s still working. So, so first of all can I ask you what you were doing immediately before the war?
BR: What was I doing?
EM: Before the war.
BR: I worked in a library.
DK: Ok.
BR: In Macclesfield. It was called a chain library and it was for the north west.
DK: Right.
BR: And that’s all I did.
DK: Ok.
BR: Until the war broke out and it so happened that I was engaged to a gentleman and his parents bought him a shop.
DK: Right.
BR: And they asked me if I would leave and look after it for his twenty first birthday. And in that time he was called up for would it be the militia?
DK: Yes. Yeah.
BR: I’m not quite sure.
DK: Yeah.
BR: To do training because he was called up in the Army.
DK: Right.
BR: And it so happened that I wanted to join the forces. A volunteer.
DK: Ok.
BR: And my brother was in the Navy and my other brother was in the Army so my mother said, ‘I’d like you to go in the WAAF. Then I’ve got one of you in each.’
DK: Each of the services.
BR: And I wrote to Eric, his name and told him I was going to join the forces. And he wrote back and said, “No girl of his was going in the forces.”
DK: Oh right.
BR: So that was the end of that. And so I just applied to join up and I went to Manchester to see a WAAF officer. And she gave me a test and I had to do handwriting.
DK: Right.
BR: And she said, ‘You’re a beautiful writer and you’ve a very good speaking voice.’
DK: Well, you still have.
BR: ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, ‘I’ll do, I want a job that, such as a telephonist.’
DK: Right.
BR: She said, ‘That would be ideal for you,’ and so I was put down to go on a course at Sheffield GPO.
DK: Right.
BR: To be a telephonist when they called me up. And, and then once I’d passed that I was just [pause] I’ve forgotten the word —
DK: Posted.
BR: Yes. To, well I was in the WAAF.
DK: Right. Ok. Ok.
BR: And I had to go to Bridgnorth.
DK: Right.
BR: And get my training done there and then the place that I first went to was 16 MU at Stafford.
DK: A Maintenance Unit. 16 Maintenance Unit.
BR: Maintenance Unit there.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And I was there and then gradually I went to various places.
DK: Right.
BR: And I ended up at a place called Winstanley Hall.
DK: Right.
BR: Near Wigan. And it was a private residence but it was very beautiful and the place that we had to travel each day was on the East Lancs’ Road and they called it RAF Blackbrook but it was underground.
DK: Oh right.
BR: And it was a switching centre.
DK: Yeah.
BR: For teleprinter operators.
DK: Right.
BR: But while I was at Stafford there were so many operators. Telephone operators.
DK: Yeah.
BR: That I never got a chance to get on the switchboard. There were so many.
DK: Yeah.
BR: So I used to sit there in the traffic office and if a message came through on the teleprinter we would get up and go and receive it and put your initials.
DK: Right.
BR: And I got so used to doing that that I thought I’d like to be a teleprinter operator. So I re-mustered and got a posting to Cranwell.
DK: Right.
BR: Where I did the teleprint. I couldn’t type at all. But everything worked out perfect.
DK: So the fact you couldn’t type —
BR: Yes.
DK: Wasn’t a problem.
BR: And so I got posted to this Winstanley Hall.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And, but during [pause]
DK: That’s ok.
BR: During this time my mother was taken ill.
DK: Right.
BR: And I had two sisters that had got children and I was the only single one. So I had to, to ask if I could be released to look after my mum which I did for three months. And in that time if she died within that time I was to be called up straightaway. And she died in the November and they called me back December. At the end of December. 1st of January 1944.
DK: Right.
BR: Because she died in 1943.
DK: Ok.
BR: And so I got posted to Scampton. That was the first posting after being released.
DK: Right.
BR: And that’s it. Scampton it was.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And it so happened that the Dambusters were operating there but they’d already been on the raid.
DK: Yes. Because that was —
BR: To the dams.
DK: That was 1943.
BR: So I was just one.
DK: Right.
BR: Of the WAAF, ordinary WAAF just doing a job at Scampton.
DK: And, and, and what was —
BR: And that’s —
DK: And what was your role at Scampton? Were you still on the teleprinters?
BR: What was that?
EM: Were you still a teleprinter operator?
BR: Yes.
EM: At Scampton.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And I stayed to be a teleprinter operator all the time.
DK: Right.
BR: At Scampton. And then I got a posting to Syerston.
DK: Right.
BR: And from Syerston I got another posting. This was within two years of each to Coningsby.
DK: Right.
BR: And that’s where I stayed until I was released from the services to go to, and get my discharge.
DK: Did, did you get to meet any of the aircrew at all?
BR: Did I?
EM: Tell, tell David while you were teleprinter operating at Scampton who, who came through the, who you handed the messages to.
BR: We handed them in. It was all to do with the flying.
DK: Right.
BR: And every time the kites took off there was a message. When they came back they was all debriefed and they put a message together and they called them a BCIR Report. Bomber Command Intelligence Report. So therefore you had to be in the section to type these messages that you plugged in to the stations around —
DK: Right.
BR: When they came back off of a raid. And they just, that was it. And it just, it was all the same.
DK: So you did this every time they went for, on a raid.
BR: Yes.
DK: And then when they came back?
BR: Yes. they went into debrief too, and I suppose the pilots told their own story because some came back and some didn’t. But they always sent a message whenever an aeroplane went off.
DK: Right.
BR: There was a message with the names of the pilot and the crew.
DK: Ok.
BR: To say they’d returned. Then they put this message together and it went to all the 5 Group.
DK: Right.
BR: Places.
DK: So eventually would, the messages would have got to headquarters here then.
BR: That was what?
EM: Where would the, would the messages have come to St Vincent’s and that? Where did the messages go? Just to the —
BR: I don’t know. I think St Vincent’s had something to do with the raid.
DK: Right. Ok. The planning.
BR: It was before I ever got. I didn’t get to the beginning of the Dambusters.
DK: No. No.
BR: To see them. It took place I think in May.
DK: Yeah. May ’43.
BR: And I didn’t get there ‘til December.
DK: Yeah.
BR: But then they, I think the Dambuster pilots and that were stationed at Petwood Hotel.
DK: That’s right. That’s correct. Yes.
BR: And I got married and I went to live at Woodhall Spa.
DK: Oh right. That’s a lovely village.
BR: And so of course I don’t know if you’ve seen the monument.
DK: Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
BR: Yeah. And I was there all the time it was being built.
DK: Oh right.
BR: So —
EM: Yeah, but —
BR: And —
EM: You’ve missed the bit about who you, you handed your bit of paper at Scampton to who did you hand your bit of paper to at Scampton?
BR: Oh, well —
EM: Guy Gibson.
BR: I just reported to the guardroom.
DK: Right. Ok.
BR: You know.
DK: Yeah.
BR: I just, I had to report.
DK: Right.
BR: To RAF Scampton.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And everything you did you had to sign in.
DK: Yeah.
BR: At the guardroom.
DK: Can you remember anybody you met there at Scampton?
BR: I met Guy Gibson.
DK: Ok.
BR: He used to walk past the window of the teleprinter room.
DK: Right.
BR: And go into the ops room. Now, the ops room was another room attached to the teleprinter off, but you wouldn’t have known that. But there was a window and if there was a message came through that had to be going to the ops —
DK: Yeah.
BR: You just knocked on the little window. It was wooden.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And it was forced back.
DK: Right.
BR: And who should take the message but Guy Gibson. Because I’d seen him walk past.
DK: Yeah. But he didn’t speak to you then.
BR: No.
DK: No. Oh.
BR: No. No. You just handed the message and that was it. But I saw him pass and I think he’d got the dog and then it was killed.
DK: Yeah.
BR: But I don’t know if it was killed in the time I was there.
DK: I think it would have been before.
BR: Which I think it probably was. And from that it was just routine. Every day the same. I just went on duty.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And off duty and that was it.
DK: Where did you used to go off duty? Was there anywhere you went?
BR: What was that, Elaine?
EM: When you were Scampton where did you live? Where did you, what did you used to do when you were off duty?
BR: We were billeted at Dunholme.
DK: Right. Yeah. I know.
BR: Across the road, down in to Dunholme village.
DK: I know.
BR: And there were Nissen huts.
DK: Right.
BR: And we stayed in those until I got a posting to Syerston. Then got to Syerston and we were in a block. I don’t know if it was G block.
DK: Yeah.
BR: I think they called it.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And —
DK: Did you, did you get on well with your other WAAFs?
BR: Yes. Made some wonderful friends.
DK: Ok.
BR: And little things happened. I sent a BCIR report, Bomber Command Intelligence Report this particular day and it was very long and the flight sergeant in Scampton office said, ‘Betty, if you can send this report without making three mistakes you will get your corporal badges.’ And I said to him, ‘Flight, I don’t want promotion. I don’t like giving orders.’ But now, you see, oh I think I was stupid but I’d just been a country girl.
DK: Yeah.
BR: Lived in a village and I don’t like giving orders to other, to other WAAFs.
DK: Did, did you used to watch the aircraft take off?
BR: No.
DK: On the raids.
BR: No.
DK: No.
BR: No. I was either on duty, and when we weren’t on duty we were down at Dunholme.
DK: Right.
BR: That was the billet.
DK: So you never really saw the activity on the airfields then.
BR: No. So, I was trying to think of something that I did at 16 MU.
EM: She’s got some nice photographs.
BR: Oh, the first time, it was the first posting I had, and another WAAF and I were going into Stafford. So you had to go to the guard room and report and sign.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And the WAAF officer there, well it was corporal, her name was Corporal Blood. Which I shall never forget.
DK: What a great name.
BR: And she said to me, ‘And which bus did you drive?’ I said, ‘I beg your pardon, corporal?’ She said, ‘Which bus did you drive?’ And I was flabbergasted. And she whipped my hat off and she plonked it on straight and she said, ‘That is how you wear your hat.’ Not —
DK: Oh. Like that. Yeah.
BR: Not at an angle.
DK: Like a bus driver. Yeah.
BR: And so I always remember her name and what she said.
DK: Yeah.
EM: I wonder if she’s still about.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And then she said, ‘Get off.’
DK: Oh dear.
BR: And that was the first, I thought I’ve got to be careful.
DK: I’ll tell you what shall I just pause it there? Shall I? Shall I just stop. Thanks.
[recording paused]
DK: Ok. Carry on.
BR: When I was at Woodhall Spa a WAAF had bought a cloth a yard wide.
DK: Yeah.
BR: It was plain. And she got people to sign it.
DK: Right.
BR: And she ran up to me for some reason and she said, ‘Betty, would you sign my cloth?’ So, I said, ‘I’d be delighted to,’ but it was my maiden name obviously and she embroidered my name on it and all the others that she asked.
DK: Right.
BR: The local reporter for the Horncastle News said could anybody, could they issue any information as to how that came about because the girl had lost it.
DK: Right.
BR: And it was found behind a cupboard at Coningsby. One of these metal containers that —
DK: Yeah.
BR: You know further in. And they’d found the cloth at the back. So she never took it home.
DK: Do you know what year they found it?
BR: And funnily enough does that prove?
EM: Yeah. What it was.
BR: It was the girl’s.
DK: Oh, here we go. 1986?
EM: Yeah.
DK: Yeah. 1986.
EM: And then they’ve lost it again.
DK: Oh.
BR: And so that —
DK: Oh no.
BR: I took that photograph of the girls and I phoned. Bill Skelton his name was and he said, I said —
EM: Horncastle News.
DK: Yeah.
BR: ‘I think I can help you with the cloth.’ He says, ‘Never.’ I said, ‘I can because my name’s on it.’ So he came to see me.
DK: Right. So —
BR: And it was put in the paper. Then a few years after.
DK: So you’re on that then.
BR: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Here it is all about the cloth.
DK: Right.
EM: And they’ve lost the cloth again.
DK: So where was it last seen then? At Coningsby?
EM: Coningsby.
BR: So that’s Coningsby. My last station.
DK: Right.
BR: And there are the girls there. And the girl that did it was this one.
DK: Ok. Can you remember their name?
BR: That’s Wendy Taylor.
DK: Wendy Taylor.
BR: So, Mr Skelton that was, he wrote a bit about the paper and said they’d found —
DK: Right.
BR: But it disappeared again and a WAAF officer wrote the next part of it.
DK: Right.
BR: Is it there?
DK: There’s a new museum at Coningsby. I wonder —
EM: We’ve been.
DK: Oh right.
EM: We went a week last Monday.
DK: Ok.
EM: And she mentioned the cloth.
DK: And they’ve got no —
EM: No. They’ve lost, and they lost it and we mentioned it didn’t we?
BR: Yeah.
DK: What a shame.
EM: And I think her name was Donna who’s there now. And she’s going to see if she can find it. But that is, that’s history.
DK: Oh sure. Yeah.
EM: And it’s a fabulous story.
DK: Yeah.
EM: They found in 1986.
DK: ’86. And lost it again.
EM: But she’s going to try to find it again. Probably through social media. You know, this is how you’re going to have to get it out there.
DK: Well, what I can do is if I, if you can send me a copy of this I can put it on the IBCC’s Facebook page.
EM: Yeah.
DK: And see if that brings out any information.
EM: Well, the thing for me to do then —
DK: Yeah.
EM: If I scanned that and that.
DK: Scanned that and that.
BR: That’s the next letter —
EM: There look.
BR: That came.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Yeah. I’m going to scan these for David and send them to him.
DK: Right.
EM: And he’s going to see whether they can find the cloth or any of the people.
DK: Yeah. We can put an appeal out there.
EM: Yeah.
DK: On the Facebook pages.
BR: There were about the second time they contacted me for that one.
EM: Yeah.
BR: For the cloth.
DK: Yeah.
BR: It was a WAAF officer and that. Is there a write up about it?
DK: Yeah.
EM: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Yeah.
DK: Well, we’ll see. We’ll see what we can do.
BR: And —
DK: I can get both the IBCC to look into it on their Facebook page and also the Coningsby Aviation Museum that’s recently opened. Or the Historical Centre or whatever it’s called.
EM: Yeah. But as I say we were there.
DK: Yeah.
EM: And they just seemed totally aghast that anyone and I said well this had been going on and as I say it’s 1944/46 look.
DK: So it was lost between the late 40s and about eighty —
EM: ’86. Found in ’86 and lost again.
DK: Oh dear.
BR: What’s the date of that? That one.
EM: It’s 1986.
BR: Yeah. Yes, so —
EM: But I’ll do that.
BR: I don’t think she ever got it, but its disappeared and it isn’t in the museum.
DK: Well, we —
BR: And that’s what they wanted.
DK: We’ll have to see what we can do.
BR: And they asked me on Monday if I would take the cloth to show them but we never got the chance.
DK: Right. Well, what I can do is I can send, if you email me all that I can send that to them. Both Coningsby and —
EM: Yeah.
DK: IBCC and they can put out an appeal for it then.
EM: Yeah. Because the other thing I don’t know if you’ve noticed somebody’s written on there Dinah Shaw.
DK: Right.
EM: And there’s a singer called Dinah Shaw.
DK: Oh right. Ok.
EM: And they don’t, is that right? Dinah Shaw. Isn’t there a singer?
BR: Dinah Shaw.
EM: Dinah Shaw. Dinah Shaw. And they’re not sure if it was the Dinah Shaw who was the singer who put her name on that cloth.
BR: Well, it probably was but I don’t know.
DK: Right. Right.
EM: And she’s quite a famous —
DK: Yeah.
EM: Person. Which is why they’ve written that there look.
DK: Yeah. So whereabouts is your mother’s name?
EM: Mum’s on this —
BR: I don’t know why. I don’t know why.
EM: Betty Jackson.
DK: Oh, Betty Jackson. There you go.
BR: Wendy came to me and there’s my name on there.
EM: Yeah. Your name’s there look. On the bottom.
BR: Yeah. E Jackson.
EM: Betty. No, Betty Jackson.
BR: I put Betty. Yeah.
EM: Yeah. But you see there Douglas Craig, all the names are quite —
DK: Quite clear aren’t they?
EM: Quite clear aren’t they? I mean I don’t know what they’d be like —
BR: And there’s lots of girls in there from other stations that I’ve kept at the back.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And put the names under.
DK: Well, it would be good if you could get all the names to the faces.
BR: Yeah.
EM: What do you want me to do then? Get the names?
DK: If you get the names to the faces on there.
EM: Yeah.
DK: I can either come back and scan these myself if you like.
EM: Well, it’s up to you.
DK: Or scan them.
EM: I can scan them at work and send them from work.
DK: We just need them at six hundred BPI.
EM: Yeah.
DK: Six hundred. Or DPI is it? Six hundred DPI.
EM: Dots per inch.
DK: Dots per inch.
EM: Yeah. Yeah.
DK: Six hundred DPI. If you can do that you can then just email them to me.
EM: Right. What I’ll do then I’ll get her to name, you see. I mean again they’re all here look.
DK: They were. Yeah. I see you’ve got a missing one there.
BR: Yeah. What’s that one?
DK: That’s —
EM: Peggy. Oh, Peggy Hassel. I don’t know where she’s gone.
BR: Yes.
DK: She’s [unclear]
EM: Oh, she’s there mum.
DK: [unclear]
BR: Oh yes. She’s there. Peggy Hassel.
EM: But they’re fabulous photographs aren’t they?
DK: They are aren’t they?
EM: I don’t know what that is.
BR: It was a job to get your photograph.
EM: What’s that? Who did that?
BR: Percy Bexton. Doesn’t it say on there?
EM: Yeah. And who was Percy Bexton, 1946?
BR: Yes. He was at Scampton and he was in the office. He says, ‘I’ll give you something to remind you, Betty of me and that’s what he did for me.
EM: Yeah.
BR: Yeah.
EM: They’re great, aren’t they?
BR: And that’s how I looked.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Yeah.
BR: When I got there.
DK: Oh yes. Yeah.
BR: That’s the one that’s enlarged there and —
EM: They’re good though aren’t they?
DK: So that’s Winstanley Hall in the background was it?
EM: That’s Winstanley Hall, isn’t it?
BR: Yes. That’s Winstanley Hall. And why I’m sitting amongst the daffodil apparently every year when the daffodils came out they were picked and given and sold to the hospital in Wigan.
DK: Ok. Right.
BR: And that’s the reason I’m sitting there with that in the background.
DK: I know the IBCC would love those photos.
BR: We were in Nissen huts.
DK: Yeah.
BR: That’s where we are in slacks and that.
EM: Yeah.
BR: It was a day off —
EM: Well, I’ll go through with you.
BR: Yeah.
EM: And make notes and then if I can scan everything.
BR: Yeah.
DK: And send to you.
DK: And send them to me.
EM: And you can choose.
DK: And I can send them on.
EM: What you want and don’t want, can’t you?
DK: Particularly the cuttings and we’ll see if we can —
EM: Yeah.
DK: Put the message out there about the lost cloth.
EM: But from Scampton then you went to Coningsby, didn’t you?
BR: No. I went from Scampton to Syerston.
EM: Right.
BR: But it was just, I think some of the Dambusters were posted there but I wouldn’t be certain.
DK: Yeah.
BR: But I never bothered about them. We never bothered about them. We were just WAAFs going on duty. Then we, that was it.
DK: So you didn’t mix with the men much then. Mix with a group.
BR: Well, we did because there was always a dance on the camp.
DK: Right.
BR: And the odd one would come to it but you’d just, they’d just come up and say, ‘Come on,’ you know, ‘I’ll have this dance with you.’ And you didn’t, it never made everything.
DK: Yeah.
BR: You know. They were just, when we were off duty we went to the dance. It was on every week. It wasn’t anything special and I wasn’t a dancer.
DK: Yeah. So how, so you left in 1946.
BR: 19 —
DK: ‘46. Yeah.
EM: You left. When did you go to Coningsby then? In 1945.
DK: ’45.
BR: Yes.
EM: Why? Did you get posted to Coningsby?
BR: Yes. I went from Scampton to Syerston.
EM: Yeah.
BR: From Syerston to Coningsby.
EM: Right.
BR: In 1945.
EM: Right. And so you were a teleprinter operator.
BR: And I was a teleprinter operator.
EM: At Coningsby.
BR: All the time. Yeah.
EM: But they, where did you live in Coningsby? You were in the Nissen huts in Pilgrim Square.
BR: We were. That’s right. That’s where those pictures were taken.
DK: Yeah.
BR: Outside with that cloth.
DK: Right. Yeah.
BR: I was Coningsby.
DK: So what, what was it like in a Nissen hut? Was it a bit cold?
BR: You see. I wish I could tell what he said.
EM: What was it like living in the Nissen huts?
BR: Well, it was alright because it was really, you slept in them and then you was going on duty and then when you come off duty if you were free we’d go in to Lincoln. To the YMCA. But Lincoln was not, it wasn’t a long way to Lincoln from Scampton.
EM: Oh, Scampton. We’re back at Scampton now.
DK: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
BR: But that’s what you did. And if not we went to the Nissen huts and —
DK: Yeah.
BR: Didn’t do anything there. We just used to sit around the fire and talk.
EM: What about when you were Coningsby? Where did you go when you were at Coningsby?
BR: Coningsby. Well, we were stationed at Pilgrim Square.
EM: Yeah.
BR: In the Nissen huts.
EM: Yeah.
BR: And well I shouldn’t say this it’s where my husband, where I met my husband. And if you want to know that story it’s lovely.
DK: Oh, well go on then. If you’re happy to tell it. What, what was your husband doing?
BR: He was a GPO engineer.
DK: Right.
BR: And he was, he wasn’t in the forces. What was it?
EM: Civil service wasn’t he?
BR: Yes.
DK: Yeah. Reserved Occupation.
EM: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
BR: His area was Woodhall Spa, Horncastle, Digby RAF, Coningsby RAF. Everything to do with —
DK: Right.
BR: And he was at Blankney Hall when it burned down. And Stan came to mend the teleprinter I was on.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And also the telephone exchange was just there adjoining the teleprinter room.
DK: Right.
BR: So he went to mend the fault on the switchboard, came off and went to the room which was the GPO room to wash his hands. And he came back with his hands wet through and I said, ‘Here you are. Dry them on my towel. I’m going on leave for the weekend.’ So that was it. Off he went. About a quarter of an hour later the telephone rang and a voice said, ‘When did you say I was going to take you out?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think you’ve had a bit of bad luck. I’m going on a forty eight hour pass.’ And he asked the girls in this, what he knew, when I was coming back. And they said, ‘She’ll be back in Monday night. And she’s got to be in by 23.59.’ And he sat and waited for me at Coningsby Station for, to watch me get off the train. And there he sat in his little Austin 7. And he said, and I could have dropped dead, and he came and opened the door and he said, ‘I’ve come to pick you up.’ He said, ‘There’s a good film on at Boston. Would you like to go and see it with me?’ He said, ‘We’ll get you back for midnight.’ So off we went to Boston to see this lovely film.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Which was?
BR: Eh?
EM: What was the film?
BR: Oh dear.
EM: I know what the film was.
BR: What was it?
EM: “State Fair.”
BR: “State Fair.” That’s it. And that was it. And from then on when he came to the camp we just kept going out together and —
DK: So, so it was a good thing you were in the WAAFs then. Because of that you met your husband.
EM: Yeah. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
EM: You met, you met dad through being in the WAAF and posted to Coningsby, didn’t you?
BR: Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
EM: Yeah.
BR: Yes. That was the last place.
EM: That’s why she lived in Woodhall Spa.
DK: Right.
EM: Because he lived at Woodhall Spa.
BR: And in my off duty Stan would pick me up. He’d be going out to one of the villages like South Kyme.
DK: Yeah.
BR: To a little telephone exchange and I’d go with him.
DK: Yeah.
BR: But if we saw another PO van he used to say, ‘Duck down,’ because —
DK: You shouldn’t have been there.
BR: I shouldn’t have been in it. But that’s what we did all the time.
DK: Yeah. Ok. I think let’s wrap up here.
BR: And we got married.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And went to live in Woodhall Spa.
DK: Right, then. Can I, can I just ask you finally how do you look back on your time in the RAF as a WAAF? How do you look back on it now?
BR: What was that?
EM: How do you look back on your time in the RAF as a WAAF?
BR: Yes. I loved every minute of it.
DK: Yeah.
BR: It was so interesting and it was a routine. And —
EM: But you enjoyed it didn’t you?
BR: Yes. I did.
EM: And you met some lovely people.
BR: Yes. And they were going to have a Ruhr tour.
DK: Right.
BR: That was to see the damage.
DK: Oh right. Ok.
BR: And every so often the aircraft, the Lanc —
DK: Yeah.
BR: Flew. This was just after the war. Oh, I don’t know if the war was on and you could put your name down for a Ruhr Tour.
DK: Right.
BR: And so I put my name down but I never got on the Ruhr Tour because I got demobbed in April ’41.
DK: So you never flew then all the time.
BR: No.
DK: When you were a WAAF.
BR: No.
EM: She never got to.
BR: That would have been the icing.
DK: I should say.
BR: And if I hadn’t met Stan, and we were getting married I would put my name down for, was it Singapore?
DK: Right. Yeah.
BR: I was going to stay in the WAAF.
DK: Right.
BR: And go off to Singapore. But it didn’t happen.
DK: It didn’t happen. No. Ok.
BR: And —
DK: Sorry, go on
BR: So that’s it.
DK: Ok, that’s great. I’ll stop it.
BR: There’s lots of little things that happened that, you know.
EM: What?
DK: Yeah.
BR: The one that sticks in my mind. Oh, when I was on the parade ground the first night being a volunteer there was a lot of girls turned up but by morning a lot of girls had gone back home because they could.
DK: Right.
BR: So of course we had to stay because they were going to issue uniform and the WAAF officer went around with a corporal I think to see if your hair was off your collar. And mine as you can see was quite curly and she pulled it out of, down on to my collar to see if it was going to touch my collar and she said, ‘Barber’s shop,’ to this corporal. And I said, ‘What does that mean?’ Well, I could. I couldn’t turn around and say, ‘Why am I going there?’ And so she said, ‘You’ll have your hair cut to a certain length.’ And I went to the barber’s shop and there was a young lad in it, and he was going to cut my hair and I said, ‘You’re not doing that.’ He said, ‘I’ve got to cut some of it off.’ So I told him how much he could take off which he did. And from then on I lost the curls that I did.
DK: Yeah.
BR: And got, put it in a roll. You put it in a roll and tucked it in, you know. And that was alright.
DK: So long as it was off your collar.
BR: Yes.
DK: Yeah.
BR: To get it off my collar.
DK: Your collar. Yeah.
BR: And then of course I go first time out the corporal plonked my hat on.
DK: Can’t win.
BR: And funny how I remember her name. Corporal Blood.
EM: It’s good though, isn’t it?
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
EM: Ok.
DK: Ok. Well we’ll stop it there. Thanks. Thanks very much for that.
[recording paused]
That was David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre interviewing Betty Repton nee Jackson at her home [buzz] on the 9th of March 2018. Also there was her daughter Elaine Mablethorpe. That’s Elaine Mablethorpe. Ok.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Betty Repton
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Kavanagh
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-03-09
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
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AReptonB180306, PReptonB1801
Format
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00:37:08 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Shropshire
England--Nottinghamshire
Description
An account of the resource
Betty (nee Jackson) worked in a library in Macclesfield before the war. When the war broke out, she went to Manchester to volunteer for the Air Force and trained as a telephonist. She did a course at Sheffield General Post Office before being posted to RAF Bridgnorth for training and then to 16 Maintenance Unit at RAF Stafford. Following training as a Teleprinter Operator at RAF Blackbrook she re-mustered and was posted to RAF Cranwell. She was released for three months to look after her ailing mother and was called back to the RAF in December 1944, being posted to RAF Scampton and later to RAF Syerston and then RAF Coningsby, where she stayed until being demobbed. When at RAF Scampton she was billeted in Nissen huts at RAF Dunholme Lodge. She handled Bomber Command intelligence report messages whenever a crew returned and met Guy Gibson. Betty met her husband Stan, a civilian General Post Office engineer, when being stationed at RAF Coningsby. Betty remembered a RAF officer who had a cloth embroidered with names of staff, but it had since been lost. When Betty and Stan married, they lived at RAF Woodhall Spa. Betty said she had loved every minute of her time in the RAF.
Contributor
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Sue Smith
Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944-12
1945
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
5 Group
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
ground personnel
Lancaster
Nissen hut
RAF Blackbrook
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cranwell
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Scampton
RAF Stafford
RAF Syerston
RAF Woodhall Spa
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1064/46017/PParkeRG2303.2.jpg
adbb73f2c923457c0fbe5913fb632557
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1064/46017/AParkeRG230330.2.mp3
1a995556537bd9a75addbb03c8306350
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Parke, Ray
Ray G Parke
R G Parke
Description
An account of the resource
Two oral history interviews with Warrant Officer Ray Parke (b. 1925, Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 218 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-19
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Parke, RG
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DW: If you want to grab a cup of tea soon.
RP: Yeah.
DW: They’re really quite good here so —
DK: Ok.
DW: If I just leave that will be for that reason.
DK: Ok. So, if I just introduce myself it’s David Kavanagh for the International Bomber Command Centre interviewing Ray Parke on the, where are we? The 30th of March 2023 and with me is Samantha [Podmore].
SP: That’s right.
DK: And Dale Wiseman. So, I’ll put that there. If you just, just speak normally. If I keep looking down I’m just making sure that the recording device is working.
RP: Hmm.
DK: Now the first thing I wanted to ask you. I understand in the last few weeks you went to Duxford.
RP: Yes.
DK: How, how was that?
RP: I was just telling Samantha today it was a wonderful trip. I had been to Duxford many many years ago but that was a marvellous day.
DK: And I see here on the photo here you went aboard the Lancaster there.
RP: That’s right. Not many people are allowed to do that.
DK: Did they, did they make a bit of a fuss of you at the museum?
RP: Not half, didn’t they? Yes. They did. Yeah.
DK: So, so what, was that your first time back on a Lancaster then?
RP: I’ve been to the one at East Kirkby.
DK: Right.
RP: Obviously a bit longer ago. Yeah. Yeah. But that was the earliest. Yeah.
DK: And, and what was it like going on board?
RP: I found it difficult to recognise. I couldn’t work out behind the main spar there was a great dip down.
DK: Right.
RP: Where the bomb bay is. I’m not sure that was on the same on my plane.
DK: So you couldn’t remember the dip there.
RP: No.
DK: They did let you go up the front then did they?
RP: No. No. No.
DK: No.
RP: No.
DK: Because it’s a bit, a bit difficult getting over the main spar.
RP: That’s right. Yes. Well it always was during the war [laughs] to get up.
DK: So did it kind of bring back sort of memories for you then?
RP: Oh yes. Of course, that and the East Kirkby were the times I’ve been back on a Lancaster. Yes.
DK: And, and, and hopefully they were, they were very good to you there then?
RP: Yes. First class treatment. Yes.
DK: Because when I saw you a few years ago I didn’t really know about Miles Tripp and it’s only recently I read the book and I was wondering had you, had you read his previous book?
RP: Yes. Yes.
DK: “Facing the Windsock.”
RP: Yes. And that, that preceded –
DK: Yeah.
RP: “The Eighth Passenger.”
DK: And what did you think of, of his book?
RP: Yeah.
DK: His first one.
RP: It’s a long time since I read it. I enjoyed it. Yes.
DK: Because people aren’t mentioned in it are they? You’re –
RP: No. No.
DK: Probably in it.
RP: No.
DK: Did you –
RP: No. That was a bit more fictional that one.
DK: Right. Did you recognise yourself then in any of it then at all?
RP: Well, I can’t remember now. No.
DK: Because I hadn’t realised Miles Tripp, he went on to become a crime writer.
RP: Yes, indeed. He was the chairman of the Crime Writer’s Association.
DK: Oh. Ok. Because how, how did you, how did you get on with Miles on your –?
RP: That was a love hate relationship. I was a country boy and he was a public schoolboy [laughs]
DK: And was it, was he good as a bomb aimer though was he? Or —?
RP: Oh yes. He was well trained. Yes. Yeah.
DK: Because reading –
RP: He started off, he’d trained to be a pilot of course at first in Canada but then he had to change and then of course the observers got more or less redundant didn’t they and they had to become bomb aimers.
DK: And that, that’s how. What about yourself? How did you become the flight engineer then?
RP: When I joined the Air Force I, my first interview was at St Athans and they said, ‘What do you want to be?’ I said, ‘Well, I want to be in the aircrew.’ So I said I would be a, ‘I’ll be a gunner.’ They said, ‘You can’t. You’re too fat.’ So –
DK: Charming.
RP: I said, ‘Well, I’ll do signals then.’ ‘Oh no. That’s too complicated for me.’ You see. ‘Well, there’s flight engineer.’ I said, ‘Yes. Alright.’ Fine to that. So he said, ‘What do you know about engines?’ No. I was eighteen year old. I’d never had a motorbike or anything like that. And he said, ‘Well, describe a cotter pin.’ So I described one on a bicycle and he said, ‘Alright. You’re in.’ [laughs]
DK: Because I find it quite remarkable that you’d completed forty operations before you were twenty.
RP: Yes.
DK: So that, that was in a very short space of time.
RP: Yes.
DK: So the period you had with your crew on operations and training was actually quite —
RP: Very intense it was.
DK: Intense.
RP: We lived in each other’s pockets all the time. We were together. All the time together except when the pilot became a commissioned officer and then devolved to the Officer’s Mess but apart from that all the time.
DK: Because reading, “The Eighth Passenger,” Miles seemed to go to great lengths to get in touch with you all after the war.
RP: That’s right. Yes.
DK: How did you feel when he got in touch with you all some years later?
RP: Completely surprised. I mean we all swore when we left at the end of the war we, that we would keep in touch and see each other but we never did. And then of course he finally turned up and did that.
DK: Yeah. Did, did he write to you then? Because there was a newspaper campaign wasn’t there or —
RP: No. His story was that one of our crew, George Bell, the wireless operator was a police inspector at Henley.
DK: Ah.
RP: And somehow or other Mike must have met him and he said, ‘Well, I live in Norwich. I’ll see if I can find a man called Ray Parke.’ And later on the local evening news said, ‘Where is Ray Parke?’ And of course, that started it up and they traced me and he came back and then we had an interview in the garden and wrote the book together.
DK: So he came to see you at your, your home then.
RP: Yes. Yes. And that I was confusing that with [unclear]
DK: Oh.
RP: It was much earlier than that.
DK: That, that was a few years later.
RP: Yes. Yeah.
DK: So what, what was it like seeing Miles after all those years?
RP: Well, by that time of course we were best of friends.
DK: Oh. I was going to say —
RP: And he’s a very clever chap and he is a barrister. Yes.
DK: Did you get that he, he writes in his book that he met the crew individually. Did you all ever meet up again as a whole crew?
RP: Yes. Yes. We all met up in Bury St Edmunds and we were interviewed by German TV.
DK: Oh right.
RP: And that was the last time I saw the whole crew together.
DK: Can you remember roughly what year that would have been?
RP: No. I can’t. No.
DW: I have —
RP: I’ve no idea.
DW: Ray, has got a photograph of that.
RP: Have I?
DW: Which we, I can get sent to you.
RP: Have I got a photograph of that?
DW: You have. Yeah. Yeah, because you all look a bit older.
[laughter]
DW: Yeah.
RP: Ah yes. You’re, you’re probably thinking of another one in Thetford.
DW: Oh, there was another. So there was another. Oh sorry. I thought it was just one occasion.
RP: Well, that was a weekend when I remember it was Harry McCalla and Les Walker and myself but I think that was just a few —
DW: Oh, I thought. Well, alright. I’ll check my library.
RP: Yeah.
DK: So, you’re, you’re, can you remember the name of your pilot —
RP: Do I?
DK: The pilot. The name of your pilot?
RP: George Klenner.
DK: And, and did he come over from Australia to meet you all?
RP: He did indeed. Yes. And he showed us his Distinguished Flying Cross.
DK: Oh right. So what, what was it like meeting them all again in later years?
RP: That was very good. I was still at work actually and I had sort of to leave work early to get down to Bury, Bury St Edmunds to meet them up and they, by the time I’d arrived they were all sitting around a dinner table.
DK: They’d started without you had they?
RP: That’s right.
DK: But your, your, so your relationship with Miles got a lot better then after that would you say?
RP: That’s right. It was all sort of cat and dog.
DK: Yeah.
RP: Initially.
DK: Yeah.
RP: But —
DK: What, one of the interesting things I find is your rear gunner Harry was from Jamaica.
RP: Jamaica.
DK: I’ve, I’ve actually been working on a project for the museum at East Kirkby of aircrew who served in the Caribbean or came from the Caribbean or West Indies.
RP: That’s right, I’ve read one or two cases about that in the paper. Yes.
DK: Yeah. How did you get on with, with Harry because he must have been —
RP: Harry was a fine gentleman. He was the oldest member of the crew and he really was a very nice chap.
DK: Did you find it difficult at all? The fact he was come from the Caribbean and was living in or serving in England I should say.
RP: I never. No one said anything about that.
DK: No. But he, I see in the book that he remained in London.
RP: That’s right.
DK: He didn’t, he didn’t actually go back.
RP: And he worked at the Battersea Power Station. Engineer I think. And married a Swiss girl.
DK: Oh right.
RP: I went up to see him a couple of times. We wrote. We corresponded together.
DK: There’s, in the book there’s claims that he was a bit of a clairvoyant. He knew what your target was going to be.
RP: Yes. Yes. And that rather upset him I’m afraid. It was quite uncanny. You know, we would say jokily, ‘Where do you think we’re going today?’ And he would say something which was not very far off you know. And then afterward people used to say, ‘Well, how did he know that?’ Of course, the poor chap didn’t really know.
DW: So there was no truth in it then.
RP: No.
DW: No truth in the idea that he knew.
RP: Well, that did happen. Yes.
DW: Yeah, there was –
RP: Yeah. And he would call us a lot of rotters or something.
DK: So just going back a little bit we were talking last time all those years ago about your operations. You’d done thirty and it’s a bit strange that you ended up doing forty. How did, how did that actually come about?
RP: Yes. It was just in Christmas 1944, the Battle of the Bulge and the order came around that if by a certain date in December you had completed less than twenty five trips you would be obliged to carry on and do another five trips to thirty five. So we said well bugger that [laughs] and we put in for some leave and got some leave [laughs] and but then we come back and had to do it. And we went on and then as we were approaching thirty five, around about thirty three, ‘Sorry chaps, the situation hasn’t changed. We’re still short of pilots. Still short of aircraft. Forty trips.’ [pause] And very quickly after that we completed the extra five in a very few days and we did the forty trips and the day or so after we arrived back they said, ‘The order is rescinded and they’ve gone back to thirty.’ There was a story about that.
DW: Wrong place. Wrong time.
SP: Yeah.
RP: Did you ever read that article called, “Beware of the Vicar,”?
DK: No. No.
RP: Our commanding officer. Well, we didn’t like him very much and he wasn’t very popular and everybody called him the vicar. And I only learned just a month or six weeks ago this story. I’d never heard it before but it seemed that he and his flight commander, a man named John Bishop, a squadron leader fell out because he thought the CO was treating his younger aircrew too hard. You see we were flying between thirty five and forty trips in about a week. You know, quite close together and —
SP: Thirty to forty [unclear]
RP: I didn’t know but suddenly that –
DW: Yeah, that is quick [unclear]
SP: Wow.
RP: Well, I’m saying perhaps a fortnight. Yeah. And I didn’t know that and I didn’t know but I’ve now found out that that squadron leader was posted away with his crew and they did go on to complete their thirty five trips as it was to them with another squadron. But the CO never recognised him in any way as a distinguished pilot. Many many flights. And neither he nor his crew got a [unclear]
DK: Ah.
RP: No. And then it occurred to me by reading that story well that must have been going on at the time I was there. You know. As I say seventy years later I found that out.
DK: Wow. Because your, your pilot got the DFC didn’t he?
RP: Yes.
DK: And George Bell the DFM.
RP: Yes. And Les Walker got the DFM. Yeah.
DK: But nothing for your good self?
RP: Hmmn?
DK: No, no, nothing for your good self.
RP: No. No. Or our two gunners or –
DW: What did you get a few years ago, Ray? Your grandson sorted out.
RP: Oh, I got the French Legion of Honour.
DK: Oh right. Oh wow.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
DK: That’s the top. Top French award. That’s recognition from the French isn’t it?
RP: Yes. Yes.
DK: Yeah.
RP: That’s my photograph.
DK: Wow. Well, that’s, that’s nice to be acknowledged by our —
RP: Yeah.
DK: By our allies, isn’t it.
DW: So he now has that pinned with the others don’t you?
DK: Yeah.
RP: That’s right.
DW: You’ve got your roll now haven’t you. You’ve got your roll now haven’t you?
RP: Yeah.
DW: Well done.
DK: You would say just a little bit about your, your fortieth trip because I think it was a bit special wasn’t it?
RP: Yes. It was special and not [pause] the CO in the previous week came up to the pilot and said, ‘Look. You’re coming up to your fortieth trip. I’ll try and pick out a nice easy one for you.’ And so we thought oh good. That would be a good idea. But when we got on the occasion of the briefing for that trip we went in and we saw the big red line going right across Europe into Essen. Now, that was one of the worst. That was one of the heaviest defended places in Germany apart from Berlin and we’d had lots of trouble there in, on the flights and so we thought rather a dirty trick and he said, ‘Well, I’m sorry. They changed the target at the last minute and you had to go.’ But in the event we got there and got to bombing and he said, ‘Now when you come back,’ he said, ‘I want you to be on your best behaviour because I’ve got lots of people who want to meet you.’ And he said, ‘I want a good return.’ We used to hate flying in formation but, I’m sorry [pause] coming back I looked at the back of the aircraft and there was the whole squadron in tight formation following [little old me] [unclear] I had to finish looking at that.
DK: That was, that was quite, quite, must have been quite spectacular for you then. A bit of, a bit of acknowledgement.
RP: So the pilot said well [unclear] this pilot and instead of we got the message pancake. Instead of pancake he went around again because we were on a different aircraft that day and our flight crew was standing on the dispersal for our normal aircraft and that crew used to see us off every day. Coming, every day we came back. So he deliberately flew over that crew. [unclear] And then we landed and there was all the big wigs. MPs with medals and ribbons and all sorts of things.
DK: That must, that must have been quite a moment for you.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
DK: Ok.
DW: That’s when you had the photograph taken in the book isn’t it?
RP: That’s right. Yeah.
DW: Yeah. Of the crew.
RP: Yeah.
DW: That was taken at that point I understand.
RP: That was taken to the News Chronicle. Yeah.
DW: It was literally spot on to —
DK: Well, that one there.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Yeah. Another one. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
DK: You haven’t changed much [laughs]
[pause]
DK: Just going back to Miles’ book again he says, says your pilot was, was quite good at doing a lot of low flying.
RP: Yes. We managed to stop a bus and get the people to run off. We upset a football match. We knocked two old ladies off a bike and so we all, ‘Come on, Dig. You have to stop this. You can’t keep go on like that.’ But he still did that one on the last trip. Yeah.
DK: Was he, was he a good pilot then? Was he?
RP: He was a good, and the funny thing was if ever we’d had a bad trip or something a bit rough particularly Harry, the rear gunner he would say, ‘Dig, that was your best landing. Soft as a feather.’ [laughs] Yeah. There’s always a first [laughs] yeah.
DK: Ok. I’m going to just turn of that for a moment so you can just have a bit of a rest. Just get your thoughts together.
[recording paused]
RP: I was just thinking now how old I would have been but I can’t just work it out for a minute.
DK: Let’s see —
SP: How old are you now, Ray?
RP: Well, I shall be ninety eight next week or next week after.
SP: Ninety?
RP: Ninety eight.
DK: Ninety eight.
SP: Ninety eight next week.
RP: No, a week after. Early in April.
SP: You are in April aren’t you?
RP: Hmmn?
SP: April.
RP: Yeah.
SP: Yeah.
RP: Yeah.
DK: So it was four, five, seven years ago then wasn’t it? Five. Six. Seven. So you’d have been ninety one.
RP: Ninety one. Yeah.
DK: When you, a mere youngster.
RP: Retired dear [laughs]
DK: So talking about after the war what, what was your career after the war then? What did you end up doing?
RP: Learning. Learning a trade. I became a lawyer and that took up most of my time and I did the same job for forty odd years.
DK: Can you remember the name of the company?
RP: Norwich Union.
DK: Oh, right. Oh ok. So your, your whole life has been around Norwich then.
RP: Yes. Yes.
DK: Has it?
RP: Yeah. One of the trips I did with Dale we went to see some cadets in Norwich and one of my office colleagues was there.
DK: Was he?
DW: He was. Yeah.
DK: Oh right.
RP: [I’ve written that down here]
DW: His name was Ray as well, wasn’t it?
RP: Yeah.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Ray Fisher. Yeah.
DW: Yeah.
DK: Presumably you hadn’t seen him for a while then.
RP: No. No.
DK: Oh.
RP: Well, we just didn’t know what. ‘Is that him?’ And he was looking at me, ‘Is that him?’ You know. And it was.
DW: And you went to that ATC as well, didn’t you?
RP: Yes.
DW: Years ago.
RP: Yes, I did. I went and joined an ATC. Yeah.
DW: Yeah.
DK: So you’ve been getting out and about then. You’ve been to Duxford ATC.
RP: Yes.
DK: Did you, did you do a Remembrance Service?
RP: Yes. Oh yes. They always treated me like a prince.
DK: Good.
RP: I was in a wheelchair and in front of the, leading all the procession.
DW: And you went to Thorpe St Andrew church where you used to go didn’t you?
RP: That’s right. Yeah. Where I was in the choir.
DW: He used to be in the choir at Thorpe St Andrew church so because Ray used to live on the same road as the church but —
DK: Yeah.
DW: But probably a good sort of good fifteen minute walk didn’t you?
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
DW: From the church. So you see he was our guest for the day and you’ll be the guest again this year, Ray. So it will be [unclear] We head towards November the 12th this year. Right. Even, even the vicar made a fuss of you.
RP: Yes [laughs] and I understand that was unusual [laughs]
DK: Talking of the low flying I think its how he mentions your return to St Eval. Do you remember that?
RP: Yes. I do indeed.
DK: What, what actually happened then? Can you tell a little bit about that?
RP: We’d been to Saarbrücken and we lost an engine but somehow or other we carried on and bombed and came away after the target. But because we’d lost an engine we’d been losing height and everybody was leaving us behind so we were more or less on our own and halfway through France an American Mustang came and settled down right inside and escorted us back to the coast. But by this time we’d had a message. East Anglia is closed. Every plane, it was quite a large raid was diverted to elsewhere and we were diverted to a place called St Eval.
DK: Is it, it’s in Devon isn’t it?
RP: Cornwall.
DK: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: Just on the peninsula down there.
DK: Yeah.
RP: Not far from St Ives. But there was a strong wind blowing and we were drifting almost back out in to the Atlantic. But we just pressed on and everybody was all standing up in the cockpit peering out, you know. Can we see land? And eventually we could see these cliffs coming up and well we did just manage to scrape over but forty aircraft were trying to get in at the same time.
DK: Wow.
RP: So you can imagine what that was like. It took us four times to go around. Every time we were ordered to pancake somebody would come in underneath and get in first so we’d go around again. That meant I had to halt the engines and all this. Everything. And four times that happened and the last time he said ‘Well, I’m coming in. Anything’s going to happen you can do what you like.’ So they said, ‘Pancake.’ And we did pancake and we landed there.
DK: So a bit of a, a bit of relief when you got down then.
RP: Oh yeah. That was. That was a big relief yeah. It was one of those things when you land everything goes quiet. The engine switches off and you sit there [breathing] you know. Like that. And then you come around and it’s all finished now. But I will always remember that.
DK: It must have been a real relief when you got back.
RP: Yes. Yeah.
DK: Ok. Well, I’ll just stop there Ray so you can have a —
[recording paused]
SP: And how did you get back from St Eval and Dishforth?
RP: Well, you spent a few days down there and somebody came. We had to leave the plane behind.
SP: Right.
RP: So it was two or three days later somebody came and picked us up and brought us back.
SP: Ok. So you got to see a bit of the UK as well. Not just Norfolk.
RP: Not really. You know you’re sort of on the airport and you can’t go out. You can’t do anything.
SP: Ok.
DK: And did you and your crew socialise much? Did you go to pubs and —
RP: Oh yes. Yes. We, we got on well with the manager of the Woolpack at a village close to Bury St Edmunds. So much so that he used to save the beer for us to the chagrin of his real customers [laughs] and they didn’t like it because they were giving us their beer.
DK: I think, I think you deserved the beer.
RP: Yeah.
[recording paused]
RP: We were novices and the first trip turned out to be to Duisburg in Germany and they said this is going to be a thousand bomber raid. So of course we had to jump in and we took off and then we had to call around to pick up other aircraft.
DK: Yeah.
RP: For this thousand raid and collect them and then go on to France. And so we got halfway across France and, and somebody got up and looked in the astrodome and they said, ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I thought there was supposed to be a thousand bombers about here.’ And we couldn’t see a thing. And there we were. Eighteen year old lost in Germany in the darkest, in the middle of the war. But we managed to get around and finished it and came back.
DK: Was that a bit of a —
[pause]
DK: I don’t like to use the word but was that a bit of an error by the navigator? I mean he obviously —
RP: Yes. Yes.
DK: Knew and —
RP: That and what he, I think he complained about being given the wrong winds.
DK: Right.
RP: Yeah. But he was [lower] Actually, he was the second navigator. The first one had to be changed and this Les turned out to be an excellent chap in the end. But on his first trip obviously he managed to get lost.
DK: Well, if he’d been given the wrong winds it’s not actually his fault.
RP: That’s right.
DK: Is it?
RP: No.
DK: It’s —
RP: No. No.
DK: He was just acting in good faith.
RP: So there was me. Eighteen years old. Never been further than London and there I was lost in the middle of Germany.
DK: I guess, I guess you sort of grow up quickly then don’t you? It’s —
RP: Yes.
DK: I could imagine eighteen year olds now doing what you did.
RP: Well, of course I was the baby of the crew. Seventeen and a half and it was all a bit of an adventure really.
SP: You mentioned the Woolpack just now. The pub. I think I might have found it, Ray.
DK: Oh, is it still there?
SP: It might still be there.
RP: What’s the name of the village?
DK: Is it in Chedburgh.
SP: No. It’s, the name of the village is Fornham St Martin.
RP: Pardon?
SP: Fornham St Martin.
RP: No.
SP: Not that one. Oh.
DW: Are you full time then for the Bomber Command? Or what’s, what’s the set up?
DK: Oh I only doing these when, when they when ask me to.
SP: It’s the one you brought up. The Woolpack near Bury St Edmunds. Is that —
DW: So are you like actually, are you employed then or or —
[recording paused]
DK: So, what, what’s it like seeing your name in print?
RP: Well, ever since the book of course, yeah.
DK: So you, you’re used to this then. Fame. Fame in a book.
RP: Well, I do due to these people.
DK: So, your friend David Dowe then.
RP: Yes.
DK: Can you say a little bit about him.
RP: Yes. We went to school together and he was about a couple of months older than me and you know just the usual pals. School pals. And then suddenly off he went to the Air Force and I learned later that he went to train as a flight engineer and was flying the Lancasters and so I started to follow and just followed him on. Yeah.
DW: There was a very special Remembrance last year that you could, you could honour him for the first time wasn’t it, Ray?
RP: That’s right. And I mean —
DW: You were able to —
RP: Met some of his family.
DK: Oh right.
DW: Yeah. Yeah, we had one or two events. We had a book launch.
DK: Yeah.
DW: And you met Ray, David’s niece, didn’t you?
RP: Yeah.
DK: So he, he was lost on operations was he?
RP: Yes. He was with an Australian crew I think. They all survived except one person. I think one survived didn’t he?
DW: One person survived.
RP: Yeah.
DW: And the Germans picked him up and he was a prisoner of war.
RP: Yes. Yeah.
DW: Yeah.
RP: So it was sort of through him that you didn’t fancy the Army or the Navy then.
RP: No. Well, we were the Brylcreem boys you see and that was the thing to do for a seventeen year old.
DK: Did the, did the girls like the uniform?
RP: Oh, not half. Talking about that when I was stationed at Methwold the girls used to come up for the dances in the Mess and we got pally with some of them in our crew and they each bought us a silk scarf. And I had that for years and years. Flew with that all over the place. Yeah.
DK: Yeah.
RP: I’ve forgotten the girl’s name.
DK: Have you still got the scarf though?
RP: Not now.
DK: No. You haven’t.
RP: My wife didn’t know what, knew what that was probably [laughs] She liked it.
DW: Tell, tell them about the flight when you went over Thorpe St Andrew and you came over quite low in a Lancaster.
RP: Yeah. We, I think we were [pause] at this pre-squadron and we were just doing a cross country or something and we’d been up to Leeds because George, someone in his family had just got married and so we flew down, down this back passage [laughs] passage and of course they didn’t know what it was and so we carried on and came back to Norwich and I swear I could see my mother’s linen lying in the garden.
SP: He was that low you could see your mother’s washing.
RP: Yeah.
SP: On the line.
RP: I bet that woke a few people up.
SP: I bet it did.
RP: But it couldn’t, couldn’t have been that low really I suppose but —
DW: Because Ray your mum and dad used to run a fish stall, didn’t they?
RP: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.
DW: Where they used to work.
DK: You didn’t, you didn’t fancy going into the family business then.
RP: I, I said to my dad, ‘Shall I come in?’ ‘No. No. No,’ he said. He wouldn’t like that. So I went off separately.
DW: Your brother worked in it didn’t he?
RP: Yes. Yes. Yeah.
DW: Your brother worked in the —
RP: Had his own shops and things. Yeah.
DK: Ok. Well, I don’t want to tire you out too much.
RP: That’s alright.
DK: But can I just ask obviously a few years have gone on since I last saw you but how do you now look back on those years? How do you think about that?
RP: Well, I was there. I’d done it. I really don’t think too much about it. I just realise how lucky I am that I’m still here sort of thing.
DK: Yeah.
RP: And I’ve done nothing more than many hundreds of thousands of people did exactly the same thing.
DK: Oh, there was one other thing I was wanting to ask you. You, you were at one point flying Stirlings weren’t you?
RP: Yes. Yeah.
DK: What, what did you think of the Stirlings?
RP: A big, more like tanks [laughs] and we managed to write one off at West Wratting.
DK: What happened there? Was it —
RP: We’d been on a cross country flight and I got lost as usual. Anyway, on the way back Dig, the pilot said, ‘I’ve got a date to see a WAAF tonight.’ So he hurried up and tried to shortcut this. There was a shortcut and the answer is that he misjudged the land, the runway and he overshot in the end and of course there was a ditch at the end of the runway and of course the Stirling’s wheels stopped in a ditch [laughs] while the Stirling went on.
DK: Was there, was there much damage?
RP: Written off.
DK: Oh right.
SP: [laughs] Yes.
RP: It was a court martial in affect. We got away with it.
DK: Must have been, must have been quite, quite terrifying as you were trying to get out of the thing was it? Or —
RP: I suppose so. Yeah.
DK: Yeah. You moved pretty quickly did you?
RP: Not half.
DK: And Wellingtons as well. I think you were on Wellingtons as well.
RP: I flew in Wellingtons. Yes. Just for a short while because there was only two engines so there was nothing much for me to do.
DK: As a flight engineer then was it a bit complicated with the Stirling you had to do?
RP: Yes. They were different engines for a start and different, well different petrol, different everything. Petrol tank system was completely different and you weren’t even, you didn’t used to sit next to the pilot on a Stirling. You had your own little cubicle.
DK: Oh right. That must have been a bit awkward then. A bit difficult if you’re not near the pilot.
RP: Well, he was just around the corner. I was not far away.
DK: So the positioning for the flight engineer was better on the Lancaster then.
RP: Oh yes. You had got a whole seat sitting alongside each other. The pilot would be there and my hand would be on the accelerator going up there like that.
DK: Ok then. I’ll, I’ll stop you there because —
[recording paused]
RP: That’s, and used to run them on the aircraft field.
SP: Three motorbikes on an aircraft field.
RP: Yeah.
SP: Between the seven of you to get out and about.
RP: Yeah. And poor old Mike Tripp used to live in the Angel Hotel at Bury St Edmunds with his girlfriend and if ever we were put on that alert somebody would have to get in touch with him, ‘Mike. Mike get back quickly.’ And he tried to get back one day and he slipped on the ice with his motorbike and that crashed and that was no good. But somehow or other he got back just in time. Two or three days later there was a policeman coming up the drive. ‘Is your name Miles Tripp? I’ve got your motorbike.’ [laughs] Yeah.
SP: So then you went down to two bikes did you? Is that?
RP: Yeah.
DK: So, RAF Chedburgh itself what, what was the airfield like?
RP: Well, there’s a picture up there.
DK: Yeah.
RP: Yeah.
DK: Was it, was it a bit not much there or —
RP: Not much there. No.
DK: So where were you billeted then? Was it in a Nissen hut or something?
RP: Around about in a, in a Nissen hut. Yes. Yeah.
DK: And that was, what was it the whole crew in one Nissen hut?
RP: At that time, yes. Yeah.
SP: That’s why it was fairly intense living then and working.
RP: Yes, and Mike, Mike Tripp was in charge of the supplies of coal for the tortoise stove and we used to store the coal [laughs] the coal under his bed. He was the scruffiest airman you could ever see.
DK: Was the, was the coal sort of —
RP: Yeah.
DK: Pinched from different places?
RP: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
DW: Squirrelled.
DK: Squirrelled. Yeah.
SP: Squirreled away.
DK: So did it get rather cold in these Nissen huts then?
RP: Yes. Yeah. But the worst thing is when you’d come home and go to bed and get up in the morning and then the rest of the beds are empty.
DK: Yeah. [pause] Have you, have you been back to the airfield at all? Or —
RP: Yes. We had that main, that reunion I said at Bury St Edmund. That was around about Chedburgh. We went to Chedburgh.
DK: Right.
RP: For that. Yeah.
DK: So your whole crew went back to the airfield then.
RP: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
DK: That must, that must have brought back a few memories for you.
RP: Yes. That’s right. Yeah. I never saw any of them again after that. Well, only Harry and Mike. Yeah. Paul Songest became an antiques dealer in Cornwall.
SP: Not near St Eval though.
RP: No. I don’t know quite know where. Where it was.
DK: Ok. Well, I’m going to switch this off now. I did put it back on again while you weren’t looking.
[recording paused]
DW: The planes in the sky.
SP: Very noisy.
DK: But as I say Ken, Ken Oatley, I interviewed him. He’s, he’s just turned a hundred and one.
RP: Well, he looks very well [laughs] If I look like that at a hundred and one I shan’t mind.
DK: So he, he was on he was on the Dresden raid with you. He’d have been ahead in the Mosquitoes. He was a navigator.
RP: Yes.
DK: On Mosquitoes.
RP: Yes. Yes. [pause] Actually Miles Tripp got, got in trouble for that. I never really did fully understand but he did. He deliberately missed the target.
DK: He mentions that in his book actually.
RP: Yes.
DK: He says —
RP: Yeah.
DK: He did. Were you aware of that at the time?
RP: No. No. No.
DK: Because he says in his book he didn’t get any confirmation from the Master Bomber.
RP: That’s right.
DK: And he said had he been ordered to he would have followed orders.
RP: He would have done. Yes.
DK: But as he didn’t get the order he —
RP: Yes. Yeah.
DK: Because did you ever talk about that raid at all afterwards?
RP: Well, if we did I really can’t remember it. But I’m sure we must have been done. Of course, that was horrendous. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
[pause]
DK: Because you said you appeared on German TV was it?
RP: Well, I never saw the programme.
DK: I’ve been trying to look for that to see if it’s on. On the internet somewhere.
RP: I remember the man coming over. Again, that was in Bury St Edmunds he interviewed us.
DK: Because the only reason I mentioned it Ken Oatley mentioned to me that he appeared on a German TV programme as well. So I’m wondering if you both appeared on the same TV programme in Germany.
RP: Well, I never saw anything of it at all.
DK: I’ll have to, I’ll have to check on that.
RP: Yeah.
DK: See if you’re on the big screen. Well, hopefully if you get your flypast you’re going to have Ray there with you.
RP: Yeah. That would be great wouldn’t it.
DW: Well, it’s he’ll need, he’ll need to be there.
DK: All the, all the staff are coming.
DW: He’s, he’s got a team. He’s got a team around him with two.
SP: An entourage.
DK: Oh right.
DW: Ray and seven others at Duxford. Samantha wasn’t even there.
SP: No.
DW: So that would have been eight.
SP: Yeah.
DW: And he’s got this full team haven’t you?
DK: A team of, a team of sherpas.
DW: Yeah, well just —
SP: I don’t know about that. Groupies I think.
DK: Groupies. Ah. How do you feel when you see the Lancaster flying again?
RP: It gives us shivers and that.
DK: Really.
RP: I don’t know whether you, you hear it first don’t you?
DK: Yeah. No. I do have a claim to fame. I have flown on one so I know what it’s like.
RP: Yeah.
DK: I flew on the Canadian one when it came over to the UK in 2014.
RP: That’s the one they’ve got at East Kirkby, is it?
DK: No. It’s back in Canada now.
RP: Oh right. Yeah.
DK: But the thing I remember when you’re on board is the noise.
RP: Yes.
DK: How did you feel after an operation of seven or eight hours. How?
RP: Well, as I say when you land yeah and you sit there for two or three minutes and don’t move. That was a good [laughs] a good moment that.
DK: I couldn’t, I couldn’t believe the noise it was making as you were inside and it’s flying along.
RP: That’s right. Yeah.
DK: But you’ve got that for —
RP: You’ve got your earphones on.
DK: But you liked the Lancaster then did you?
RP: Oh yes. That was our favourite. HAA-Able.
DW: The one at Duxford is a Canadian one.
DK: Yes.
DW: It is Canadian made. Yeah. It is. So that could be why it’s slightly different.
DK: Could be. Yeah.
DW: There could have just been a slight difference.
RP: Yeah. I I thought on that photograph that seems slightly different to me.
DW: Yeah.
RP: Well, I didn’t recognise the, the aileron controls on that one. That seemed to be quite a substantial bar control and build. I just remember a lot of wires.
DK: Oh.
DW: Well, they had taken a lot of the wiring out.
RP: Yes. That —
DW: A lot of the wiring is missing. So that would, all you’ve got really is the shell.
DK: It is the Canadians did a lot of modifications to them post war so —
RP: Yeah.
DK: You might be looking at post war modifications.
DW: Well, I think that was ’45 ’46 plane. Stuff like that if I’m correct. So it wasn’t —
DK: Do you think even now you could do the job of a flight engineer on a Lancaster or not?
RP: I would just have to sit there and let the pilot take off.
DK: Would you, would you know what to look for in the dials or for the engines?
RP: I had my own little panel down there.
DK: So it was, it was a better set up then the Stirlings then.
RP: I was, I’m talking about low flying. I was bending down reading my gauges and I looked out and there was a tree above me.
DK: Wow.
RP: Oh dear. We made him stop that in the end.
DK: He must, he must have been quite an expert pilot.
RP: He was [unclear] when he chose me for, to join the aircrew you know how you were all put in a hangar and you’d get told and I found myself sitting and waiting and nothing happened. I thought I’d had it and then suddenly this great tall Aussie stood in front of me, ‘Hiya Cobber. Is your name Ray Parke?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ ‘You’re on top of the list are you?’ ‘Yes, that’s me.’ ‘You’re in. Come with me.’ [laughs] Yeah.
DK: He was, it was a good choice though was it? Or [unclear]
RP: Oh, he was a lovely chap, yeah. A lovely chap.
DK: Did you presumably that was the first time you’d met an Australian. Did you find them culturally —
RP: Yes.
DK: A bit different. Or —
RP: That was the first time I met an Australian. Yes.
DK: What did you think of them when you met the Aussies?
RP: Well, brash. Yes. I liked them. I got along well with them. Yeah.
DK: They obviously made good pilots as well.
RP: Yes. He turned out to be a good pilot. He had to learn like the rest of us.
DK: He, he, he didn’t carry on flying after the war then.
RP: Not that I know of. He became a general manager, General Motors manager in Australia. Adelaide I think or something. Yeah.
DK: You never got the chance to go out to Australia to see him then.
RP: Not to see him. I have been to Australia but —
DK: Alright. Ok. We’ll stop there.
DW: That’s lovely. Well —
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Ray Parke. Two
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
David Kavanagh
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-03-30
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
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00:46:45 Audio Recording
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
Pending review
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AParkeRG230330, PParkeRG2303
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
England--Bury St. Edmunds
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
England--Norwich
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Saarbrücken
Wales--Glamorgan
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Ray Parke trained as a flight engineer. During a training flight the pilot wanted to get back to base as soon as possible because he had a date but they were flying a Stirling. The pilot made an error on landing and the wheel stayed in the ditch and the Stirling kept going. The aircraft was a write off. Ray and his crew went on to join 218 Squadron at RAF Chedburgh. He completed forty operations before he was twenty. On their fortieth trip the CO said he would let them have a easy trip for the last one but it turned out to be Essen because it was changed at the last minute. On their first trip they got lost because the navigator had been given the wrong winds. On one operation they had a damaged engine and were losing height when a Mustang appeared and escorted them to the coast. Discusses the Eighth Passenger and Faith is a Windsock, the books his bomb aimer Miles Tripp wrote, and their crew reunion. Goes on to talk about his tour of operations, the bombing of Dresden and low flying.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
218 Squadron
African heritage
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
entertainment
flight engineer
Lancaster
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Methwold
RAF St Athan
RAF St Eval
Stirling
superstition
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/797/10779/PDeanJEH1701.2.jpg
bceede6a4853b1983c889df55bddcadc
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/797/10779/ADeanJEH170913.1.mp3
6f47adb3b5809113563fa431fe9e92f6
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Dean, John Eric Hatherly
J E H Dean
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with John Dean DFC (1922, 173978 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 77 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-09-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Dean, JEH
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DM: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is David Meanwell. The interviewee is John Dean. The interview is taking place in Mr Dean’s home in Westerham in Kent on the 13th of September 2017. Ok, John if you could perhaps tell me where and when you were born and a bit about your early life.
JD: Yeah. Well, I was born at Edmonton in North London in 1922 which means that I’m ninety four. Ninety five next birthday. And I grew up mainly in London but my family moved out when I was about twelve and we went to, to live in Middlesex. And I remember on the morning of the 15th of August 1940 standing outside the house where I lived with my parents and watching a German aircraft which I think was an FW190 being pursued by a Spitfire. This was in, coming from North London and the FW190 had smoke coming out of its engines and obviously the Spitfire had [coughs] had shot it down. It was pursuing it until it crashed. And from that moment on I decided I wanted to be a Spitfire pilot. And as I was just over eighteen I was able to go to the RAF recruiting office in London and I joined up. I joined up on the 1st of November 1940 when I was eighteen years and four days, four days, five days old. So that was my introduction to the Air Force. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve my ambition of becoming a Spitfire pilot because although I did elementary and basic flying training on, on Tiger Moths and later on Harvards I met my Waterloo on Harvards because I developed this annoying habit of landing the aircraft about thirty feet above the runway. So [laughs] they took me off Harvards and sent me to a navigation school in, in Canada in fact which was quite interesting and I did my training there and came back, and I was, ultimately found myself in Bomber Command with 77 Squadron.
DM: When, when you went to Canada you went by ship I assume.
JD: Yes. Sure.
DM: Was that sort of eventful or was it an easy, an easy trip?
JD: Well, only eventful to the extent that it was very uncomfortable because we went out in a very small Dutch vessel called the Volendam. And it was only about, I don’t know twenty five thousand tonnes or so. A very small ship and there were masses of us crowded in this small ship. And for most it took fourteen days to cross the Atlantic, and most of the time we were in a violent storm and the number of people who were sick on each other. I can remember it, you know with some horror really. But on the way back we came back on the Queen Mary which was then a troop ship and that did the trip in three and a half days so that wasn’t too bad. Yes.
DM: Whereabouts in Canada did you train?
JD: Well, we went eventually, initially to a place called Saskatchewan. Swift Current in Saskatchewan and we went by train from Halifax and that took, as far as I can recall it took about four days to get to, to Swift Current which was then a tiny hamlet but today I gather its quite a rather large township. And there I did some flying training on, on Harvards, and as I say my training came to an end and I then went back. Was transferred to a place called Chatham in New Brunswick to do my navigation training.
DM: So you came back to the UK. Trained as a navigator. So, I suppose the next thing, was it crewing up that happened next?
JD: Yeah. We went to [pause] it was either 1652 or 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit at, it was either Marston Moor or Lisset. I can’t remember precisely and there I got crewed up with an Australian pilot called [Gallant Lee] and he had already acquired all the other crew members and it was, it was the flight engineer who approached me asking me if I was looking for crew. So I said yes and that’s how, you know I met my crew. And as soon as that happened of course we were posted off to, to 77 Squadron and we did half our tour with Bill [Gallant Lee] at Elvington.
DM: What type of aircraft were you flying?
JD: Halifaxes. We started off in the early Halifaxes with inline engines. The Merlins. And of course they were very much underpowered. Anyway, we did half the tour with Bill [Gallant Lee] the Australian and then he was grounded with sinus trouble. So, we were then transferred back to I think it was 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit which was then Marston Moor to find another pilot which we did. And he was a South African. A flight lieutenant called Smiler Welch. And he was called Smiler because he was never seen to smile. Typical RAF humour, you know. So we got back to the squadron with Smiler Welch, and he immediately became a flight commander which meant that we didn’t operate very often. Perhaps once every two or three weeks rather than every other night. So it meant that we took about six months to complete our tour. So all in all we were on the squadron for a year to complete a tour. Which was much longer than most people of course. Anyway, we, we were successful in completing our tour of thirty three ops which included six mine laying trips, which as you probably know was each mine laying trip was counted as a half. And then that took us up to July or, yeah July or August 1944 and at the end of my tour I was transferred back to Marston Moor as an instructor. And that lasted for about six months until about December 1944, or January of forty, no. It must have been a bit later because we were posted. Oh, incidentally yes I acquired a new crew at Marston Moor and at the end of the six months training we were posted to India. And we were all packed up ready to go when the war ended fortunately. So we didn’t go to India. So I stayed on. I forgot to mention at the end of my training my crew and I were transferred to Transport Command and we stayed on in Transport Command until I left the RAF in 1947.
DM: So we go back to I suppose really you could say that your operation, your thirty flights or more because you did some mine laying flights was sort of split into two halves with two different pilots.
JD: Yeah.
DM: As you said the chap who had the problem with his sinuses and then the South African. Were they both similar in their outlook or —
JD: Completely different.
DM: Right.
JD: Yeah. Bill [Gallant Lee], he took a violent dislike to me when we met [laughs] He used to refer to me as, ‘That bloody pommie,’ you know [laughs] And anyway eventually we settled our differences and got on extremely well. And I liked Bill. He was a very straight talking Australian as most, most Australians are and he died, oh it must be about ten or fifteen years ago and I was very sorry to hear that. Yeah. Completely different to Welch. He was a very, what’s the word I’m looking for? He never said very much and —
DM: Taciturn, I suppose.
JD: Gave the impression he was terribly unhappy with life generally, you know. And whereas my flight engineer, unfortunately he died two years ago he kept in touch very closely with Bill [Gallant Lee] in Australia and actually visited him. With Smiler Welch he, at the end of the war he disappeared from our orbit and we never heard from him again. And I don’t know whether he’s still alive or not. I did try to find out some years ago by writing to somebody in South Africa. There’s an organisation which is connected to the RAF but they had never heard of him. Anyway, so that was Welch. A completely different cup of tea.
DM: Have you any particular memories from operations? Any close calls? Any sort of particular horrors, or —
JD: During our tour?
DM: Yes.
JD: Well, yes I mean it is extraordinary. I’ve always, I still think this, I thought it for some time. I think it’s extraordinary how in the midst of such horror going on with aircraft being shot down and being, catching fire and so on we virtually sailed through our thirty three ops with hardly a scratch. I did think there were a number of people who experienced the same thing, but there were one or two incidents where we came very close to meeting our doom as it were. One was a case where we were bombed by another aircraft and this was on a daylight raid. Not a daylight raid. A night raid to a place called Lens which was a big, big marshalling yard in France and it was so important that the Pathfinders had lit up the place with their flares so when we got there it was just like daylight and there were about three hundred and fifty aircraft converging on this place, Lens. And as we were doing our bombing run the flight engineer, Derek who was standing up next to the pilot and on the Halifax there was an astrodome immediately above where the engineer worked. He looked up and he said, he said, ‘There’s an aircraft right above us.’ And then there was a pause of a few seconds and he said, ‘There’s a bomb coming down.’ And a few seconds later it hit the aircraft and came in to the Halifax. Well, we were a bit, well to say a bit scary was probably an understatement but we just waited for this damned thing to explode but it didn’t. And then after about a minute or so the pilot said to the engineer, ‘Derek, go back and see what it is.’ And he undid his, his intercom and went back and then a few seconds later he came back on and said, he said, ‘I’ve got the bomb. It’s a twelve pound oil bomb.’ And by that time the, the aircraft that that had dropped it had moved off but Derek knew sufficiently enough, enough about aircraft to identify it as being a Stirling. And then there was a debate in the aircraft I remember. Half the crew wanted to take the damned thing back, the bomb. And the other half wanted to get rid of it.
DM: Which half were you with?
JD: What?
DM: Which side were you on?
JD: I wanted to keep it actually [laughs] and then the pilot intervened and said, ‘Enough of this bloody nonsense. Get rid of it.’ And so Derek got rid of it. So that was a very close call because I gather that there were untold instances of aircraft being bombed but nobody lived to tell the story. But we were probably very lucky. And then we had one or two encounters with, with night fighters which was a bit scary and on one occasion we were very severely hit by an anti-aircraft shell which completely disabled all our electrics. It didn’t interfere with the flying ability of the aircraft strangely enough. The engines kept working. But it meant that when we got back to UK we had no means of communicating with the ground and at the same time we, I was operating a navigational aid called Gee. You’ve probably heard of it. And that didn’t work, and it was still very dark when we got back to the UK and none of us had a bloody clue as to what, where we were. So we were stooging around UK looking for somewhere to land and then we saw this runway lit up and so we just went, went in and landed and of course we were unable to tell the people who we were so they started firing at us with, [laughs] well, I suppose it must have been some sort of cannon or something. Fortunately, they were very bad shots. Anyway, we landed and we couldn’t open the hatch to get out because this anti-aircraft shell had damaged the door so they had to, the people, the people on the ground had to go off and get a long piece of wood and smash the door in. So, and then we found out that we’d landed at a, what was it called? [pause] What was the name of the training unit before an HCU?
DM: Oh.
JD: It’s something like an Initial Training Unit or something.
DM: Yes. Yes.
JD: Anyway, it was, it was Silverstone which later became, you know the motor racing place, and they were training crews for Bomber Command using Wellingtons. So that, you know what was a nice ending to the story too. Again, what could have been quite a nasty ending because we were lucky to find an aircraft. I think we had about ten minutes petrol left when we landed. Yeah. So one or two quite narrow escapes, but from which we, we emerged successfully as it were.
DM: Was that the only time you got lost or did you have other — ?
JD: No [laughs] To my everlasting and undying shame we got completely lost on my first operation which was to Mannheim. And Mannheim is, let me see, it is, it is northwest of Berlin and it is situated between Berlin and the north coast of Germany. Up near [pause] I can’t, it’s, it’s sort of in the Lubeck, Lubeck area, where the coast is. And the route planners took us up north of, of the northern coast over the North Sea so that to give the impression to the Germans we were heading for Berlin, and then about fifty miles short of Lubeck we had to turn a sharp right and approach Mannheim from the north. Well, somehow and I don’t know how it was I turned right about twenty miles west of Lubeck instead of fifty. No. The other way around. Sorry. We turned right which is what we should have done so that it took us down to the west of Mannheim, and I remember the flight engineer saying after we’d flown, after we’d turned right for about an hour or so the flight engineer saying, he said, ‘It’s very strange,’ he said, There’s a big, big fire on our, on our port side.’ He said, ‘I wonder what that is.’ So I had a look at my chart and then I realised I’d made a gigantic error. So I said to, it was still Bill [Gallant Lee] then, I said, ‘Bill, I’m dreadfully sorry. I’ve made a complete cockup,’ I said, ‘We’ve turned too early.’ And I said, ‘Mannheim is on our left.’ And he said, ‘Ok.’ So he turned the aircraft to the left and we, instead of approaching Mannheim from the north we were on the west side of Mannheim and we were meeting aircraft coming out of Mannheim having dropped their bombs. So, again it was rather a perilous thing to do but we did it. We went back and dropped our bombs on Mannheim and managed to get through. So when I can, you know I think it was an example of the guardian angels looking after us really. But when I got back we had to, I had to discuss, you know the trip with the squadron navigation officer which was the usual thing and he looked at me and he said, ‘John, you are bloody lucky aren’t you to be here?’ And he was right actually. But that was the only time I got lost I think.
DM: When you were training navigators after your, you know, when you went to the HCU to be trainer was that mainly ground based or was there a lot of flying?
JD: On the contrary, no. We, most of the time we spent in the air. This was at Chatham, in New Brunswick. Most of the time we were flying Ansons and you know, the training at Brunswick I do recall was very exhaustive, and we were trained by Canadian instructors and they were very, very good and passionate about the job they were doing, you know. And we spent, I can’t remember exactly I’d have to refer to my logbook, but we spent a great number of flying hours in Ansons training and one of the things we did was to take, we did quite a lot of training on aerial photography. And somewhere in the house here I’ve got quite a lot of photos of, taken from Ansons. A very slow, sort of noisy aircraft but very interesting.
DM: When you were a trainer so, because you did some training between your tours I think, didn’t you?
JD: Yeah. Well, I was with [pause] I did my, yeah I was an instructor at I think it was 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit and of course there we flew again. I think it was Wellingtons. I can’t remember. But my job was to, again mainly in the air. I did very little instructing on the ground. I used to go up with trainee navigators as part of their training to observe what they were doing and to correct them if I thought they were doing anything wrong. So I did quite a lot flying there.
DM: Where were you based when you were doing that?
JD: I think that was Marston Moor. I should have got my logbook with me but I think that that would tell me. But I think it was Marston Moor. Quite near York. A celebrated historical place, of course.
DM: Indeed.
JD: Yeah.
DM: Yeah. So, I assume that included night exercises as well as daytime flying.
JD: Sorry, the —
DM: Night exercises as well as daytime when you were assessing the navigators.
JD: Oh yes. Sure.
DM: Was that, did you feel safe? Or —
JD: Well, yes because [pause] did I feel safe? Well, I suppose I did [laughs] Yes. I mean we were using, we were using Gee and whereas Gee was jammed over, over Europe, in Britain it wasn’t of course and it was an excellent navigation aid that I recall. So we were never lost at all. So I felt you know completely confident that we’d get back all right.
DM: So then you were supposedly going to go to India but as you say that didn’t happen because the war ended. And then, but you were in Transport Command.
JD: Yes. We were. After the war we were transferred from Elvington in Yorkshire to a place called Stradishall in, in Suffolk and that was about twenty five miles south of Bury St Edmunds. And Stradishall Aerodrome was a peacetime RAF base so that all the buildings were pre-war RAF buildings, including the officers mess because by that time I’d been commissioned. And whereas previously in, at Elvington we had to bunk down in in Nissen huts at Stradishall we had posh buildings and rooms to ourselves you know. So that was quite a step up in the social world as it were. Yeah. And the aerodrome of course was right next to Stradishall village. A tiny village. About two or three hundred people and it was there, of course I met my wife and got married.
DM: So, she was a local girl was she?
JD: Yeah. She was the wife of the local vicar so, and I met her in a pub dare it be said. Yeah. So, that was Stradishall and we operated out of Stradishall flying a variety of aircraft including the York which was the model, the civilian version of the Lancaster. And the York was the first aircraft where we were allowed to smoke. In Halifaxes and I understand Lancasters and certainly Wellingtons it was absolutely taboo to smoke in aircraft. Unlike the Americans where they used to issue out cigars if you wanted them I gather. But in the York I don’t know why but we were allowed to smoke. Most of us did smoke then of course so that we did. But we used [pause] yes. Smoke. Sorry, Yorks and Stirlings, and the Stirlings were found to be not very stable aircraft, and there were a number of crashes both her in the UK and also enroute. And the route to India took us via Libya. That was the first stop. I remember that it took us ten hours from our base in Stradishall to get to the first bit. The first landing stage in Libya. So we were pretty worn out then, and then after we’d spent a night there and then the next stage was Cairo West which as the name indicates is west of Cairo and that only took about, about eight hours. Seven or eight hours. And then we went from Cairo West to Habbaniya or Habbaniya I’m not quite sure which is the right pronunciation, in Iraq which was an RAF base. A peacetime base. And we landed there for refuelling and then after a few hours we took off, and then we went through to Karachi which was the end of my journey. Although on one occasion we went down to Madras so the whole of that trip was of course very interesting. And I remember on one occasion we were going in to Habbaniya or Habbaniya in Iraq and there was some natives on the ground who started, who had rifles and they started firing at us. So the pilot said to ground control, he said, ‘What the hell’s happening?’ And the controller said, ‘Well, go around and disappear for a minute because we’ve got a little tribal war going on.’ And apparently in that area one tribe used to fight with another sort of every other Wednesday, you know, and that sort of thing. And when we appeared we were another choice target and fortunately they were very bad shots. Anyway, that was quite exciting.
DM: What sort of things were you carrying?
JD: Well, mainly war material but it was all boxed up so we didn’t, we didn’t know what it contained. We assumed it was things like guns and other stuff which, which couldn’t be left in India. And occasionally half a dozen people but not very many because the aircraft wasn’t really converted to carry passengers. It was mainly boxes and we never knew quite was in them. It could have been bombs I suppose but they never told us. Also we were able to, I remember on one occasion we were allowed to bring, I think it was one item which we brought locally in Karachi and most of the, most of my crew bought carpets so there were quite a large proportion of the air craft was taken up with carpets. Anyway, we got those through. Yes. Happy days.
DM: Did you used to fly things out to India or was it an empty aircraft?
JD: Sorry? No. As far as I recall we flew out empty. I can’t remember [pause] Yeah. I don’t think we took anything out. It was, we were just meant to bring things back. Quite why they used aircraft to do this I never found out because it would have been a damned sight cheaper to use, you know ships. I suspect that those boxes contained, you know what we would refer to as secret material of some kind but they never told us. Never told me anyway. I suppose the pilot knew. And in those days of course when you’re young you tend to accept things without question don’t you?
DM: That’s true.
JD: Which we did.
DM: So you were doing that for about two years.
JD: Yeah. Again, I’d have to refer to my logbook. Yeah. Actually, I’ve got the chronological times a bit wrong. I was transferred from Elvington, the squadron to Marston Moor as an instructor in July 1944 and that went on until December 19 — 1944. January. And then in January 1945 I’d forgotten to mention I was transferred from Marston Moor to [pause] to Stradishall. That’s right. I’m sorry. I think I said that I went from Elvington to Stradishall. That’s not the case. I went from Marston Moor to Stradishall where we were formed up as 51 Squadron and it was 51 Squadron who did all the flying to India. So, I hope you can make —
DM: Yeah.
JD: Sense of all that. And so we flew from India from, from [unclear] flew to India from Stradishall from about January 1945 to July ‘47. Just over two years.
DM: Did you volunteer for that or did you not have any choice?
JD: We were just told, you know.
DM: Right.
JD: There was no question of —
DM: Yeah. Yeah.
JD: Yeah. Well, they had to. I mean, now that it is all over of course one realises that Bomber Command HQ had to find somewhere to put all its aircrew, surviving aircrew you know so that they could become gainfully employed. And I suppose Transport Command was the obvious choice really. I mean I don’t know how many other members of 77 Squadron ended up in Transport Command. All that I know is that we were told to go there. We went.
DM: Could you have stayed on longer if you’d wanted to?
JD: Yes. I could and in fact that was my intention. I wanted to stay on in the RAF but my wife, well we got married fairly, fairly soon after we met really. Oh yes. It was at Stradishall on 51 Squadron after I’d got married there that we, I was posted, we were posted to India. And when I said, told my wife about this she said, ‘Do you really want to go?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And she said, ‘Well, I don’t want you to go either. What about coming out of the RAF?’ So, that was why I left really.
DM: Right. What did you do when you came out?
JD: Well, I spent some time trying to find out what I wanted to do and eventually came up with the, with the answer that I wanted to be a surveyor. And at that time the Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors which I wanted to become a member of had arranged training courses at various places and I applied for one and I got a training place. And this was at [pause] somewhere near Reading I think it was. I can’t remember. And that training lasted for about six months to give us a basic, a basic idea what a surveyor did and then the rest of the time in order to qualify I got a job at Ipswich where my wife was living and did home study to qualify. And that took me about three years and then eventually I sat their exams and did qualify and I became an Associate Member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. But I then did, having qualified it sounds strange to say this but I found it very difficult to get a job, a paid job and this was because so many people had decided to travel this route because of this, the availability of this training. And the only job I could find was in Manchester and I went home and told my wife. She said, ‘I’m not going to Manchester.’ I said, ‘Well, what will we do?’ She said, ‘Well, we must find something else to do.’ And then I spoke to a colleague of mine who’d, he wasn’t . He didn’t train as a surveyor. He’d done something else. And he said, ‘Why don’t you write to — ’ he said, ‘I do know that they need surveyors abroad. Why don’t you write to the Colonial Office and ask them if they’ve got any vacancies?’ Which I did, and they wrote back. Well, I went up for an interview and they wrote back six weeks later and said, “Dear Mr Dean, we can offer you, thank you for coming for an interview. We can offer you a post in Hong Kong.” And I really wanted to go but my wife wasn’t very keen so I wrote back and said, “Well, thank you very much. Do you have anything a bit sort of a bit nearer? Say, like Africa?’ And they wrote back strangely enough and said yes and they offered me another job in Northern Rhodesia. So that’s where I went and I spent fifteen years there. Not as a surveyor. I went out, they said to me that the only job available at the time was as an administrator. So I went out as a, what was called a district officer and spent, you know fifteen years there. And that was quite good fun. Africa of course was, well I don’t know about today of course. It’s a bit, it’s a bit sort of full of guns and dictators but in our time of course it was very peaceful and the conditions of work were very good. We used to do a tour of three years and get six months leave and that sort of thing. Ostensibly, the six months leave was because of the unhealthy living conditions but where we were in Northern Rhodesia we found it extremely healthy but fortunately the authorities hadn’t caught up with that.
[telephone ringing – interview paused]
DM: So you came back, I suppose. Back to the UK.
JD: Yeah. Came back to the UK and I got a job as a, with a national training organisation where eventually I became a personnel manager and that, that lasted until about fifteen years when the training organisation I was with closed down. And so for the second. Oh yes. I was with, I was in Northern Rhodesia until it became independent. It became Zambia and I stayed on. It became, Northern Rhodesia became independent in October 1964 and I stayed on for a couple of years until, until ’64. Yeah. Until ‘66 ’67. And then I decided that it was time to retire and come back because there really wasn’t much future in Zambia for white civil servants quite naturally. So I came back and I managed to find a job as I say with this training organisation where I became personnel manager and that lasted for fifteen years until the organisation closed down. And then I became, I was very lucky because I was out of work for about two or three months which I found extremely boring. Then I don’t know quite how it happened but I managed to find a job as, as bursar to a school in Kent and that lasted until well past retiring age. So, again I was very lucky.
DM: Did you keep in touch with people from the Air Force?
JD: Yes. Well, I kept in touch with, I’d already said the pilot, by that time of course Bill [Gallant Lee] our first pilot had died and Smiler Welch, the second guy, pilot had just disappeared. But I kept in close touch with Derek Compton, my flight engineer and we used to meet up occasionally. He lived down in Dorset at Christchurch and he died about two years ago. I also met up with my wireless operator who lived in Liverpool and I did a trip up there to meet him. I got along with him extremely well. And I also met, I also met the rear gunner. Butch Sutton. He was called Butch because he was the son of a butcher you know. RAF term. The bomb aimer I didn’t keep in touch with because he lived in Scotland and the rear gunner [Kitch May] sorry, the mid-upper gunner [Kitch May] lived in Cornwall. But I used to, we used to correspond [Kitch May] and so for a few years anyway I kept in touch with most of the crew but towards the end it was because they, you know how it is you stop writing and stuff like that. But with Derek Compton my flight engineer I stayed with him several times and unfortunately the poor chap died about two years ago. So yes I did keep in touch and also 77 Squadron formed a Squadron Association which I joined and we formed, when I say we members in the south of England formed a sub-branch because the main meeting was up in Yorkshire I believe. Anyway, there were about a dozen or so of us in the south who formed this sub-branch and we used to meet every May at [pause] I’m afraid my memory isn’t very good these days, a town down [pause] I can’t remember where it is. The town begins with M but it doesn’t matter the name of the place. We used to meet at the White Horse in this town starting with M and there were about a dozen or so of us and we used to meet sometimes with our wives or girlfriends, whatever and chat and have lunch you know. And I used to meet Derek Compton my engineer there. He was there on every occasion. And I used to pick up another navigator from 77 Squadron who was badly shot up over [pause] again my memory lets me down. It’s a big, a big port in France. In Brittany. Beginning with B I think it is.
DM: [unclear]
JD: Can you remember it? You can’t. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. But the poor chap got badly shot up and virtually lost an eye so he was grounded and he lived at [pause] oh dear. Again, my memory for places. He lived at [pause] well about thirty miles from here towards Guildford. Near Guildford. He lived near Guildford and I used to get there and because, because of his eye he couldn’t drive and he, he had a very nice Mercedes car. And when we first met he said to me, ‘Will you drive me to the reunion?’ I said, ‘Of course I will,’ I said, ‘But there’s one condition.’ He said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘You let me drive your Mercedes.’ And he said yes. So once a year I got the opportunity of driving this magnificent car down to wherever it was. And the poor chap he developed dementia and eventually was admitted to a home. You know, a nursing home and died there about three years ago. But he and I, we knew each other from, from the squadron and we got on extremely well. And he, he ended up as a director of operations with British Airways so he had done very well. But I remember one of his drawbacks was on the way down, driving in this car of his he kept on saying to me, ‘Now, do you know where you are, Dean?’ you know [laughs] And I used to tell him, I used to say, ‘For God’s sake, shut up otherwise we shall get lost.’ But we had a good relationship and I’m sorry, I was very sorry he died, you know. Yeah. Those were most of the people who went, who attended these, these May meetings. Of course, it got to a point where it was difficult for them to drive or get to to the meetings. So we abandoned it or it was abandoned about two years ago. And it was started I remember that the whole this, this sub-branch was started by a man called Varley, who was another navigator who I knew and he unfortunately he died to. So I’m beginning to think I’m about the only one left from 77 Squadron. There must be others. Talking about the survivors I was interested to find out quite recently how many Bomber Command aircrew are left alive today. And I’ve always thought it was about between three and four thousand and I tried to get in touch with the Bomber Command Association of which I used to be a member but I gather that’s been completely disbanded now because there are so few members. And then on the internet, I use the internet quite, quite a lot on Facebook I came across this Bomber Command history forum and in the forum was somebody there call Dee mentioned the IBCC. You probably know about this lady, Dee.
DM: I’ve heard.
JD: You know about her. Well, she in fact put me in touch with the IBCC or reminded me because I’d been in touch before and I posted this question on Facebook and she came back and said she’d spoken to somebody at IBCC and they thought it was just over two thousand. But nobody really knows because no records have been kept have they?
DM: No. No.
JD: So, it’s all guesswork really but I think two or three, between two or three thousand is right. I mean immediately after the war there was something like a hundred and twenty thousand left. But the war, that’s what we are talking about? Getting on for seventy years ago now, aren’t we? So, there can’t be many left.
DM: No. Do, do —
JD: Yeah.
DM: Do you remember your time with Bomber Command with fondness or —
JD: With —?
DM: With fondness or —
JD: Yes. Well, it’s, no I don’t know about fondness. Yeah. I mean let’s be, let’s be honest it was a pretty scary time. Although as an individual I never felt that I was, I was going to get killed. I always thought that I was going to survive and I think this may have been due to the fact that when one is young, I was twenty or so you never think anything is going to happen to you. Well, obviously I was always optimistic. But I must confess that before each trip when we were sitting outside the aircraft waiting to get in and start the engines and they’d always happen for about a half an hour it then suddenly dawned on you what you are doing, you know. And then I do remember getting a bit apprehensive then. But once in the aircraft as the navigator I was busy from, you know the first, from the first minute as it were until the end of the trip. And that meant that one I was occupied and didn’t have time to think about you know being attacked. And it now, you know it’s occurred to me since that the other members of the crew sitting there staring out into the darkness they must have been petrified I should think most of the time but they obviously never mentioned it. Yes. I mean, I think probably a navigator in Bomber Command probably had the best job really because he was occupied as I say all the time and mark you one thing I missed was, was looking out of the aircraft and seeing what was happening all around us. Although, I did go up and I’d see. I used to get permission from the pilot to go up and stand by him when we were going in to the bombing run watching things happen and I think I wasn’t frightened at all. I was absolutely fascinated with what was going on, you know. And then of course you could see other aircraft all around you all being lit up and so on. So, yes it was something that one would never see again. Oh yes. I recall we did one trip early on in our tour. I think it was our second or third operation to Milan and that was quite an interesting trip because first of all it took almost nine and a half hours which was a hell of a long time. Secondly, the route took us over the Alps and we were flying on a bright moonlight night and it lit up the Alps dramatically and we were about I suppose the Alps go up to about fourteen or fifteen thousand feet and we were at sixteen so there wasn’t much between us you know because sixteen was about the maximum height, I think for a Halifax. Perhaps seventeen after a bit of a struggle. Anyway, we had a dramatic view. Fantastic view of the Alps both going and coming and then after we crossed the Alps we could see Milan in the distance because Milan is quite near the Alps, lit up and we could see searchlights waving. And then the nearer we got the searchlights stopped and when we got there we could also see anti-aircraft bursts in the sky and when we got there they completely stopped. So there were no searchlights and no anti-aircraft fire when we got there and I gather this was quite common that the Italians manning these things on the ground decided they’d leave, you know if we were there [laughs] Which was nice for us. So that was quite, I think we were meant to bomb some factories near, near the main railway station in Milan. And I gather according to the Bomber Command Diaries, you know that big fat book that the raid was very successful and we hit the factories. But that was quite an interesting trip. But on one I think on that same trip [pause] it was the same trip the pilot of a Stirling aircraft won the VC that night and it came, I’ve got a story upstairs about him. His name was Aaron, I think it was Aaron Smith. I’m not sure. But on the way, on the way down just before they got to Milan they were fired at by another Stirling aircraft and to this day nobody knows quite why the other Stirling aircraft did this because nobody owned up to it but it was presumed that the other Stirling aircraft just missed, he identified the other, you know the Stirling wrongly and took it to be an enemy aircraft. Anyway, he fired at this guy’s aircraft and he got badly badly injured and could no longer fly the aircraft. So the crew took him back and laid him down in the back of the aircraft and I think it was the [pause] I can’t remember whether it was either the flight engineer or the navigator took — no. It was the flight engineer. That’s right. He took over flying the aircraft because he had some instruction and they decided to abandon the bombing. So they released the bombs and they fell somewhere else. And then they decided that it would be dangerous to try and go back over the Alps to the UK and they decided to head for Sicily which was about I don’t know, I suppose and hundred and fifty miles south of where they thought they were. And then, oh yes the other thing was that the damage included putting out the radio. So they had no communication with the ground so they couldn’t find out where to land in Sicily. But eventually the wireless operator he managed to get some communication going with an aerodrome called Bone in North Africa. In Libya. And it was the only Allied air base in Libya at the time. Anyway, I don’t know how the wireless operator did it but he managed to speak to Bone and Bone said, ‘You must abandon the idea of trying to land in Sicily because there’s an invasion taking place and there’s a lot of fighting and we can’t advise you where to land.’ He said, they said, ‘You must try and head for Bone,’ and so they altered course and did that and eventually got there and this guy Aaron somebody, the pilot, he decided to get back in to the pilot’s seat to fly the aircraft and eventually he landed this aircraft despite the fact he was badly injured and he died nine hours later. And he got a VC for that. So that was quite an unfortunate dramatic ending for him. For the crew.
DM: Did you ever visit subsequently any of the cities that you bombed?
JD: Did I ever —?
DM: Visit any of the cities that you bombed?
JD: Only Berlin. Yeah. I went to Berlin about five years or six years ago and of course the area which was bombed of course have you been to Berlin?
DM: No.
JD: No. The area that was bombed has been rebuilt but it’s instead of, it’s been rebuilt with mainly glass buildings. Very modern. So you get no, you get no sense of an area that was completely obliterated and it’s a, you know an interesting city but I think that they built they rebuilt most of it in glass or so. A mistake really because in other parts of Europe where cities have been rebuilt they’ve rebuilt particularly in France they’ve rebuilt them in the style they were originally. An example of that was Caen where Caen was effectively demolished by Montgomery in order to get his troops on the move as it were. At great cost to civilians living there. But after the war they rebuilt Caen as it was and to go there you’d never think a bomb had been dropped anywhere near. But that didn’t happen in Berlin unfortunately. There we are. Yeah. I can’t remember. No. I’ve not been to, oh yes I’ve been to Milan. Ah yes. Of course, I’ve been to Milan. Great place Milan. And we actually went to the, yes we flew to Milan. We were going to go to a place called Genoa in Italy. Or Genoa. I don’t know how you pronounce it. Genoa. And we flew to Milan and got on a train at Milan. So we actually went to Milan Station but there was obviously no evidence of the bombing so, but I’m impressed with Italian railways. Very cheap and very fast. Unlike the UK of course. So yes but I mean no in terms of visiting immediately after the war and this took place from Elvington we were instructed to do what were they called?
DM: Oh, are these the Cook’s Tours?
JD: Sorry.
DM: Cook’s Tours.
JD: That’s it.
DM: Yes.
JD: And we did two of these. We took, we took a number of people. I didn’t know who they were, I presumed they were VIPs of some kind over, we flew over the Ruhr and we flew over Essen and Mannheim and one or two other places very low. About we couldn’t have been more than about two or three hundred feet perhaps. No. A thousand. I don’t know. I can’t remember. But low enough to see the damage very effectively. So we did that and yeah, I think we were all taken aback by the immense amount of the damage which we’d caused and subsequently I didn’t realise then but in later years I realised that Bomber Command it did what it had to do and it was probably very necessary that we did what we had to do but what we had to do was quite barbaric. But I think that, I think we, I don’t think there was ever a question of whether we should have done it. I think we should have done it. What should have happened was for war to be avoided, I think. I’ve become very anti-war. I think a lot of people who took part in the war have. But yeah, I mean, I think I mean in London of course people suffered to a certain extent.
DM: Yeah. When you said that you grew up in Edmonton and Middlesex.
JD: Sorry?
DM: You said you grew up in sort of Edmonton and Middlesex.
JD: Yeah. I was out of London when the bombing took place but —
DM: Were your family still there or —
JD: No. No. None of my family live there now. No.
DM: Were they there during the war though?
JD: Oh, indeed. Sure. Yeah.
DM: So they all came through the bombing of London.
JD: They survived you know.
DM: Yeah.
JD: Because they weren’t in, they weren’t in central London. They were out in the suburbs. Wood Green which is a suburb and I don’t think, I don’t think any bombs were dropped there at all. No. It’s [pause] yes the I suppose you know since the war there’s been an enormous amount of literature hasn’t there and books written about Bomber Command. And I think that [pause] Well, I think that what we did played an enormous part in, in the defeat of Nazi Germany. I mean had that Bomber Command not done what it did then presumably all the German troops that were used for anti-aircraft purposes and I gather it totalled something like two million presumably those troops could have been released to fight elsewhere. Presumably against, on the Eastern Front against Russian and that might have made all the difference really. I don’t know. So, although I think what we did was, was not very nice I think it was completely and utterly necessary to get rid of this terrible scourge in Europe. And at the time of course when I was on the squadron I hadn’t really read very much about what was going on Germany. I don’t think many people had at that, at that stage because there wasn’t much news coming out of Germany in the nineteen, the late 1930s and early 40s. And as a young man I wasn’t as interested then as I am now in what happened in the past. So we were largely unaware of what was happening in Europe. But I remember having a feeling, you know then on the squadron that what we were doing was necessary. That we had to defeat these so and sos in Germany without really knowing about them. About all the horrors that were going on. But with that I don’t know we never spoke. Something we never discussed. I never remember discussing this with any of my colleagues. I think we were too busy thinking about other things like, you know going out to the pub or whatever or something like that you know.
DM: Yes.
JD: Very good.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with John Eric Hatherly Dean
Creator
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David Meanwell
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-09-13
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
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ADeanJEH170913, PDeanJEH1701
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Pending review
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01:03:02 audio recording
Language
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eng
Spatial Coverage
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Canada
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
North Africa
England--Suffolk
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Mannheim
England--Yorkshire
Italy--Milan
Saskatchewan--Swift Current
Saskatchewan
Description
An account of the resource
John Dean’s childhood memory of watching a Spitfire and a German aircraft having a dogfight in the sky above him spurred him to want to become a Spitfire pilot. He didn’t achieve his aim of becoming a Spitfire pilot and instead became a navigator. On one operation the Flight Engineer noticed the Lancaster immediately above them and then saw the bomb fall from it and in to their own aircraft from where the crew argued what to do with it. On his first operation he realised to his horror that he had turned the aircraft too early and they were far off target but they managed to rectify their mistake and complete the operation.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
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1940-08-15
1944-12
1945-01
1652 HCU
51 Squadron
77 Squadron
aircrew
bomb struck
bombing
Fw 190
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
navigator
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Stradishall
Spitfire
Stirling
Tiger Moth
training
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2092/34803/SRAFIngham19410620v060001-Audio.1.mp3
82e9cb8ce17b90dcac1201367cf6a3ee
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RAF Ingham Heritage Group. Clarke, Marion
Clark, Marion
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. An oral history interview with Marion Clark and four photographs.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-14
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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RAF Ingham
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
MC: The American President’s daughters, and I used to have to go and get his car and take it to be serviced and whatnot.
Int: So he was a Polish prince then was he?
MC: Prince, yes, Prince Razduvu, I don’t know if I’m pronouncing quite right but yes, and he was there, cause he spoke -
Int: So he was a pilot then was he?
MC: I’m not sure, he was a commander, he had, in charge of one of the squadrons, and he married the American President’s, one of the daughters.
Int: Oh crikey!
MC: I used to go and get his car and do you know, it reeked of cigarettes, oh it was dreadful inside! [Laugh] Oh yes.
Int: So Marion, obviously as we have a chat I’ll ask you a few questions, but obviously you, you remember quite clearly all the you know, the various incidents and things that happened there. I’m hoping that from -
MC: In fact one of the things and I, the standard van that I was driving at the time was going round the flights, caught fire under the nose of one of these bombers that was loaded up for the night’s mission! [Laugh] People, the men round the aircraft, cause there was always someone fiddling around and putting it through its paces and whatnot, they threw their jackets on it, on the engine.
Int: This was your engine of your vehicle?
MC: Yes, of my vehicle, I was sitting in it and you know, it caught fire! And it was under the nose of this bomber loaded with bombs, [laugh] so there was great consternation and throwing of coats and things. Yes.
Int: Was Hemswell your first, your first posting?
MC: Yes, it was, yes, well you know you have to go to a Training Depot.
Int: Yes, to do your training.
MC: Norwich or somewhere, and then I was posted, they asked you where you’d like to go, which county, and they said oh, don’t put where you really want to go because you won’t get there, you know, they’ll cross it out. Well I thought that’s stupid, I’ll put Lincolnshire, there’s plenty of aerodromes there and I got to Hemswell.
Int: To Hemswell. Did you, when you got there, had you already got your uniform?
MC: No, I think it was delivered to, to me there, you know, everything. I was a volunteer, I wasn’t, you know, subjected to regulation that makes you go.
Int: Conscription or anything like that.
MC: I wore my VR very proudly!
Int: Oh right! So you got your VR.
MC: Volunteer.
Int: Even though you were, it was during the war years, you were still classed as a volunteer if you, rather then civilian conscription.
MC: Well I don’t know what sort of difference it made, whether it made a difference to the uniform, because I thought somehow it was a nicer cloth, my uniform, you know, smoother cloth, so I don’t know whether that was why I got it, I don’t know.
Int: Did you always decide you wanted to be, you know, an MT driver or did you try to get in to a different trade?
MC: No! They tried to, when I went for my first interview, to get me to go to signals.
Int: Oh right.
MC: Yes, they tried to push me to signals and I thought no, I want to be outside, being a country girl.
Int: Yes. Where were you actually born then? Where were you born?
MC: I was born in Leeds actually, in Yorkshire.
Int: Oh right. But outside Leeds when you say you were a country girl.
MC: And then my father’s parents farmed at Swayfield, I don’t know whether you know it do you? No, and they farmed there and that’s how I suppose, and my mother was brought up at Little Bytham which is a little village, not far away.
Int: So the idea of being out in the open in the fresh air suited you really well.
MC: Yes, I didn’t want to be cooped up, and I couldn’t, you know, if you’re pushing those things around like they do in signals and your friend had got killed or was shot down, I thought it must have been too awful.
Int: But obviously your job, obviously, did you have different jobs within the driving, within the MT Section?
MC: You had to be able to drive anything: tractors, crew buses, anything.
Int: Right, so even the bigger lorries they had?
MC: Oh yes, one of my worst moments was down, I was down Gainsborough with this six-wheeled vehicle and I had to back it alongside the canal where there was a sheer drop into the River Trent so I was very nervous about that one!
Int: Did you have to have somebody marshalling you back, somebody standing there?
MC: Yes, yes I did! [Laughter]
Int: I’m not surprised.
MC: I mean, well, one of the WAAF drivers down near London, Richmond way I think, or somewhere down there, actually did drown; she went into the river in her motor car.
Int: Really, oh.
MC: So I got this in, at the back of my mind I think [laugh] and I got a six wheel lorry.
Int: Did you, when you, especially at Hemswell first of all, was it, did you always work like eight in the morning till kind of like tea time or did you work evenings and nights and things?
MC: That’s an interesting thing, we used to do a sort of day duty for about two weeks and then we had to do a night duty and the hours there were so long, you went on at lunchtime, worked all through the afternoon and all through the night, and coming off you did it the opposite way round, was hours and hours. They wouldn’t to do it today, would they. I’d gone to sleep at the wheel driving down to Gainsborough to get the morning mail, [laugh] I bumped over the side of the road and thought oh!
Int: And woke up! Did most of your driving just take place on the base though did it, at Hemswell?
MC: A lot of it, oh yes.
Int: Little kind of –
MC: Yes, I went to Waddington and different aerodromes round about. Swinderby was a bomb dump and so you went there if you were collecting.
Int: Oh, was it really? Oh that’s interesting.
MC: Oh yes, bomb dump there, at Swinderby.
Int: And obviously there was the big bomb dump over at Faldingworth as well, wasn’t there.
MC: Yes. And there was one outside Castle Bytham actually, Stockhenhall Wood.
Int: Right. But there would have been a bomb dump on Hemswell obviously.
MC: Oh yes, the bombs were down at the side, yes.
Int: So did you do that? Because I have a, I’ll show you a picture later, which I’ve got, which shows a WAAF riding one of the tractors pulling the bomb trailer where you had perhaps five, six, seven trollies.
MC: Oh yes, they used these sort of trailers, they used to take them out by tractor and take them round to the different dispersals where the aircraft were.
Int: And that was one of your jobs as well, was it?
MC: No, I never did that, no.
Int: Oh right.
MC: I never pulled the bombs, it was a man usually.
Int: Oh right, okay, probably through the armourers. Right.
MC: Yes, yes, exactly.
Int: So you did mention in your earlier interview that obviously one of your jobs that you had to do was to pick the crews up.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: Cause obviously most of it was night bombing and looking at the er, the flying records from Ingham in particular, they often took off at either ten or eleven in the evening and got then got back at about three or four in the morning depending on how long the raid was.
MC: Oh yes. Yes, and there were no heaters in the vehicles!
Int: Really! Not even in the cab?
MC: No, when you got out of the cab, put your feet to the ground it really hurt; we were so cold! No, the only thing was, when we got the Bedford QL lorry, the engine was inside and so it was a little bit warmer.
Int: Gave off a little more warmth.
MC: There was no heaters in vehicles, no, in fact sometimes there were no windows in the vehicles.
Int: Did they allow you to wear trousers instead of skirts then, to keep you warm, or not?
MC: Oh yes, I got it trousers, and yes, oh no, it was very primitive. Fancy having no heaters, you know, in the winter time when it was so cold. Oh, poor little things, we were frozen.
Int: Exactly, living, living as I do in up that part of the country!
MC: And washing in cold water at Ingham, in the morning!
Int: Really!
MC: Yes!
Int: Well that was what I was going to ask you about now, obviously you went to Ingham just for one stretch, didn’t you.
MC: Yes, I can’t remember, but it was months I think, possibly about nine months or about a year, something like that.
Int: So I wonder if that, if it was 1942 or 1943?
MC: Oh, I was there in ’42.
Int: So it would probably be ’42 then maybe, because they went, 300 -
MC: When I say I was there, I was at Hemswell.
Int: But you used to come, used to –
MC: But I went to Ingham, yes.
Int: Right. Did you actually, so you didn’t actually live at any point, you didn’t live at Ingham, and on the base.
MC: Oh, yes I did. Oh yes, I lived there. We lived in nissen huts, did I not tell you?
Int: Right. You did, you mentioned that.
MC: Put pigs in there in Norfolk, and the condensation used to drop from the sort of tin plate or whatever, and it used to freeze on your blanket! When you woke up in the morning those little icicles on the cloth.
Int: I’ve seen some pictures where you had a like a little pot bellied stove in the middle of the room with all the beds round the side Is that how it was for you cause I’m only guessing?
MC: Yes, oh yes, and if you weren’t there when they brought the coal or coke or whatever it was they were putting in the things, if you weren’t there you just didn’t get any and so you probably were a few days without any fuel. You see being MT you’re often out, not on the station, when the coals arrived and everyone rushed with buckets and boxes and of course you were probably sitting in a vehicle round Lincoln somewhere.
Int: Was, was your accommodation, was it a big room with lots of beds or did you have small rooms?
Mc: At Ingham they were sort of, I should think, probably four, five or six people in one of these nissen huts.
Int: Right, okay.
MC: It was better at Hemswell because you had a sort of construction with a corridor down the middle and rooms off each side and there were two WAAFs in each room, that was better – and hot water. [Chuckle] I mean you had to wash your smalls and things you see.
Int: Of course yes, cause you wouldn’t have had a laundry or anything, no! So how did you get everything dry, that’s?
MC: I know, it was a nightmare!
Int: Were there lots of little clothes lines around the um, around the big heater or boiler?
MC: You did the best you could.
Int: Best you could. My goodness me.
MC: I wouldn’t like to go through that part of it again.
Int: No, and obviously you had, when you were at, when you were working at Ingham, you had your meals in the airmen’s mess. Now this is the building that we are obviously, we’re renovating at the moment.
MC: Well, I’ll tell you what.
Int: What do you remember of that?
MC: Our little, where the living quarters were, and where we slept, was quite a long way away away from the station, and you know, we didn’t bother with breakfast because it was such a thing getting up and getting washed and everything and we had, when the NAAFI van came round at ten o’clock, we had hot scones and er, coffee and things like that which was our breakfast really. We just stood up eating these lovely warm scones [chuckle] and having a hot sweet drink, you know.
Int: Was that something that was provided or did you have to actually pay for that at the NAAFI van?
MC: We had to pay for that, yes, and do you know much we got a week?
Int: Oh go on then, this would be like your wages would it? Yes, go one then.
MC: Ten shillings.
Int: Ten shillings!
MC: Ten shillings.
Int: But what would ten shillings have bought you in those days, per week?
MC: Well, we had to get brasso for the buttons, buy soap, buy shampoos for your hair, buy newspapers, buy your mugs of tea in the NAAFI, buy your bus fare home, you know; I mean it soon disappeared. And of course we were ultra smart, we were, at Hemswell. We had lisle stockings which were provided by the Air Force, they were much finer, you know, and several things like that. What else did we buy? Well I bought Van Heusen collars because they were smarter and stiffer and better than the ones provided, and of course we had, we bought our best shoes because they weren’t clodhoppers like those provided, and if you wanted to go to a dance or some function, you wanted your best shoes on.
Int: Best shoes.
MC: I had a Squadron Leader’s wife used to borrow mine if she was going dancing, Spottiswood, and I think he came to Cranwell not very long ago, because there was something in the local newspaper and I thought well I don’t think there could be, I think he’s Wing Commander now, I don’t think there could be two of them like that, and his wife was a great friend of mine, but anyway he got her posted to be near him, so I had to say goodbye to her.
Int: Ah, that’s nice, isn’t it, when you could actually provide. So when you went to the dances did you, did you wear a nice dress?
MC: Oh yes, I had a best uniform.
Int: Oh, so you still had to go to the dances in uniform? You couldn’t go in what you think of as civvies, a nice colourful dress then.
MC: No. Do you know, that’s one of the things, when the war was over, that I most wanted, a lovely summer dresses made of pure cotton.
Int: That wasn’t uniform.
MC: You couldn’t get it during the war.
Int: So when you were, when you were at Ingham then, and obviously you’ve mentioned about your accommodation was quite a way up from the station.
MC: Oh yes. And it was shielded by trees and I thought well that’s because they wanted, any daytime raids, they wanted to sort of have a, there were quite a few trees round where the WAAF quarters were, and I thought it was you know, just shielding it from the enemy.
Int: Ah, yes. Because obviously you were fairly near to Fillingham Castle as well, weren’t you.
MC: Yes, yes.
Int: That was just, was the other side of the trees.
MC: I have lovely memories of that because when I organised a dance for the MT Section and I was anxious to have flyers everywhere and they let us go for the whole day, several friends of mine, some from the MT, and we collected daffodils and made the place all beautiful, for the dance.
Int: Ahh. If you, if you get a chance, at some point, perhaps later in the summer, I don’t know whether your sister, does your sister drive at all?
MC: Yes.
Int: It would be lovely to –
MC: I drive!
Int: Oh, do you.
MC: My car’s sitting there, and it’s taxed and insured and everything but I’ve got a cataract coming in my left eye so they won’t allow me to drive.
Int: So it’s, well maybe if your sister, maybe later in the summer, cause I’m away, we’d love you to, like to invite you up there, not only from your benefit to see what’s there now, and there are still a couple of the old WAAF nissen huts there.
MC: Oh lovely!
Int: They’re in poor condition I must say.
MC: [Laugh] I’m not surprised!
Int: Because the farmer uses them now, the rest, unfortunately all the rest of the huts have gone. Were they, were all the WAAF huts, were they all metal or were there some wooden ones as well?
MC: Oh no, they were metal, like the ones in Norfolk they put the pigs in!
Int: In that case they’ve all gone bar two of them, but the airmens’ mess is still there and that’s obviously, you had the two dining rooms either side and the kitchen in the middle and you used to come up to the servery basically, and get your food. Do you have any kind of, do you have any recollections? You must have had some lunch.
MC: I think where the food was served was in the main station, wasn’t it, the main part of the station, that’s why we had such a long walk for breakfast.
Int: Yes, it’s just to the north of the actual airfield, but it’s between where you were billeted, and the actual airfield, it’s a bit to the north, it certainly is the only airmens’ mess that was there so I think that probably is the building but it’s across several fields to get from where you were sleeping.
MC: Well it was quite a distance, that’s why we didn’t bother in the end.
Int: Bother with breakfast, no.
MC: We went to the NAAFI van that came at half past ten, with everything warm and nice.
Int: Where was your erm, at Ingham, where was the MT yard or where you had all your vehicles at Ingham? Can you?
MC: Well [sigh] there was the main entrance, a sort of gateway, you know, and then I think it was on the right hand side. I think it was on the right hand side. I can remember that entrance going in through the, where they used to lift up the gate and things but I can’t remember which side it was on. No. 199 Squadron I can remember quite well being there. They had a lot of bicycles round the place, you know, used to cycle from one place to another.
Int: They were certainly there from February to June of 1943, so that kind of, that pins the time.
MC: Well I went to Hemswell in ’42.
Int: Right, and obviously 300 Squadron.
MC: And then from Hemswell I only was a short time at Ingham, and then I went back to Hemswell again.
Int: Right, but the fact that you remember 199 Squadron means you must have been going to Ingham between February and June of 1940 because that’s the only time they were at Ingham, between that period.
MC: Yes, I can remember that, yes.
Int: So the Poles weren’t actually at Ingham at that point, it was just purely 199.
MC: It seems to me they came later.
Int: Right.
MC: That’s what I think. But I can remember 199 Squadron, and we had a Medical Officer, and if they were going on a long mission, a ten hour, he used to go round to each aircraft and give the men pills which would keep them awake because it was a long mission. And there was a pub backing on to the perimeter of the airfield. Did you know that?
Int: The Windmill pub? Was it call the Windmill pub?
MC: When we, when they had all gone, when we had all done, the medical officer and I used to nip in to the back of the pub when the back of the pub used to come right up to the perimeter. Have a quick drink. [Laugh]
Int: Did you, um, I think you were saying before that you used to, one of your jobs, fortunately or unfortunately, was to go and collect the crews before they flew, and take them.
MC: Yes it was, most of the time, yes.
Int: Can you tell me a little bit about that?
MC: Only about six of us used to do the crew duty and I was one of them and then they had two others, yes. One was a very pretty girl, blonde and everything, but in the end some of the crews wouldn’t go, didn’t want her taking them out, because they thought she was unlucky; she lost such a lot of crews that never came back.
Int: Oh dear.
MC: But I never had that problem, you know, so they used to come and go out with me. [Chuckle]
Int: So what, can you talk me through what used to happen then, from you, for you picking them up, cause obviously you picked them up, there must have been set routines that they did and set places they had to go to.
MC: Oh yes, we had to go round the perimeter to the dispersal and you know, pick them up when they came in. Of course we were in, sitting underneath the control tower, or up in the Control Tower sometimes, and then when they were calling up permission to land and you know, and wanting any news about the weather or runway or anything, we then used to set in motion, we’d to go scampering downstairs and go out and pick them up, so overjoyed to see them back again. There was only one thing, when the Poles came they used to relieve themselves when they got out of the aircraft and I’d be sitting there with my lights on and they used to come round the front so I used pick up my book and pretend I was reading. [Laughter] English people didn’t do that, it was only the Poles. Strange that, wasn’t it.
Int: How did you know, because at Ingham there were about thirty different aircraft dispersals, you know, what we call the frying pans, the concrete pan where each of the, we’ve looked on maps and things and we can’t see any numbering system or letters. How did you know what, in those days was there a different number for each kind of aircraft dispersal, or was it a letter, or something?
MC: Oh yes, they all knew their dispersal because they’d been working, and the engineers would be working on during the day and they had the same crew sort of in six months time, still working.
Int: I was just wondering from your point of view when you came down from air traffic control to drive to the dispersal, did air traffic, did they have a numbering system so you know, you’re going to dispersal number twenty three or seventeen or something?
MC: No, they didn’t have a number, not that I’m aware of.
Int: Not at all, no. Just pointed you, he’s going over to that one, or you just watched to see.
MC: Yes, yes. Well you knew by the name of the crew.
Int: Ah right, okay.
MC: You see, you knew where you were going because unless something happened they usually flew the same aircraft, so they you know, A for Able. Do you know, one of the funniest things, they had a large Humber Snipe, they were beautiful motor car, and this was all yellow and I had to drive out.
Int: Yellow!
MC: Drive round the dispersal, come out again and the aircraft was following me all the time, I was taking them out to the dispersal and I don’t, it really was a bit frightening when you first do it, because you’re aware of this coming up behind you and you think they’re doing it on purpose, to make you feel nervous, but they’re not that because that was the accelerator they were pushing you see, so they were coming along in jerks and you were driving this yellow Humber Snipe with ‘Follow Me’ up here!
Int: Oh, so they had it on in those did it? I’ve seen the Americans have it – so it actually said ‘Follow Me’ on the roof did it? Oh my goodness me!
MC: Yes. It was a great joke, yes.
Int: So this thing stood out a little bit, being painted yellow then!
MC: Yes, we thought it was funny, and of course they were sniggering when the aircrew came out of the aircraft – ‘Follow Me’, [laugh] that was the new thing when I went back to Hemswell from Ingham.
Int: Oh right, but did they have them at Ingham, the ‘Follow Me’?
MC: No, they didn’t. That was the only one I ever saw.
Int: They just had the yellow vehicle.
MC: ‘Follow Me’, and of course it’s a bit frightening because they’ve got a huge roar, those Merlin engines.
Int: The engine behind you, yes.
MC: Brr, and then there’d be a pause and then brr, another pause, yes.
Int: So this yellow car, was the yellow car at Ingham then, or just at Hemswell.
MC: Hemswell. Used to call it the yellow peril.
Int: The yellow peril!
MC: And you used to drive up to dispersal point, circle the dispersal point with the yellow peril and then come out again and then the aircraft.
Int: Do the same, do the same thing. Crikey. But then did you have to then rush back, to come back with the lorry or the bus for them?
MC: Oh yes, once they were in, once they were in, yes. Back to the Control Tower.
Int: To pick up the other vehicle, to then come straight back out to pick them up from the aircraft?
MC: Well that was when I was doing the, driving the yellow peril, other times, when you were just driving the ordinary crew bus, you just went out to the dispersal and waited for them to get in.
Int: Oh I see, somebody else was doing the crew bus while you were doing the yellow peril then.
MC: Yes, and they didn’t have it all the time. It was a new invention while we were there: it was the newest, you know.
Int: The latest idea.
MC: Yes. We didn’t have it all the time, when I first went there, we didn’t have it, we just used to say A-Able landed, well you were waiting, watching it land and then you had to go out and pick them up.
Int: When you were at Ingham, driving at Ingham, did you have to go up the Control Tower then for waiting for the crews to come back?
MC: No, no, as far as I know, it was you know, very sort of laid back, I mean you never used to do that at Ingham, no. No, I don’t know how they managed to, I can’t remember. I used to be helping the sergeant out at the Control Tower if there was an aircraft coming back early, you know, they’d all, as they were flying over the coast one developed trouble or something and came back early, cause we had to be on stand-by in case that happened. And this sergeant from the Control Tower seemed to be doing most of the work then. Yes. But at Ingham, erm, at Hemswell of course they had a Squadron Leader up in the Control Tower there and it was all very different.
Int: Yes, very much a bigger station wasn’t it, yes, certainly. I mean obviously the station, for Ingham, the Station Headquarters was down in the village. I don’t know whether you remember that? Perhaps didn’t go down into the village much.
MC: No, I don’t. I never went down into the village, no.
Int: It’s interesting that you were housed, or billeted, up on the, just to the north of the airfield at RAF Ingham, when you were so close to Hemswell. You’d think they’d have kept you at Hemswell.
MC: Yes. It was on the way to Hemswell.
Int: Indeed! Yes.
MC: Yes, it was on the way to Hemswell. I remember there was a sort of a spinney, and I thought oh well they’ve picked the right place because the nissen huts are sort of probably covered partly, you know, from above, by the trees.
Int: I think so, and the spinney is still there, if it’s the same one I’m thinking of.
MC: Oh it’s still there is it?
Int: Yes, along the front and down the side as well. Very much so.
MC: Yes. So you can see what a long way we had to walk for breakfast!
Int: You can now. The fields, the fields are very much open now, but it’s still a long, you know, it’s a good five or ten minutes trek to get to the airmens’ mess.
MC: Would you say about a quarter of a mile?
Int: I think so, possibly yes.
MC: That’s what I thought.
Int: And you probably wouldn’t have gone straight across the ploughed field, would you, you’d have gone along the road or something, and that’s where the airmen’s mess is. It’s on the edge of another little wood, or a small spinney, a bit further down.
MC: Yes.
Int: We found, when we were digging around, we found a few of the old mugs.
MC: Oh did you!
Int: Because you had the white mugs, but on the bottom of it, it was by people like Wedgewood and some of the main pottery makers, but it says: ‘For the Air Ministry’ 1942 or ‘43. We’ve not found a complete one yet, we’ve found lots of broken pieces.
MC: Oh, what a shame.
Int: And one or two knives and forks with NAAFI written on them, where people, for whatever reason, had thrown them out the windows or just got rid of them. So we have found quite a few little artefacts around, so.
MC: Oh, that’s nice.
Int: So when you come for the visit, it would be lovely to show you round and to show you what we’ve actually done.
MC: That would be great. Yes.
Int: So did you, obviously you must have had, did you get just like one or two days off a week? Did they give you days off or not?
MC: Do you know I really can’t remember. I remember going down into Lincoln on some days, when there was transport, but er, I can’t, I can remember coming home and er, but it wasn’t more than a, one day a week. I think you had to work until your leave came up. I think it was just about one day a week.
Int: And then you just used to catch, was it service transport, was it the military transport, or was it like the normal bus that ran into Lincoln?
MC: No, they provided transport down into Lincoln.
Int: And that’s where you caught the train I presume did you, when you wanted to go home to Leeds, or not?
MC: No, I caught the bus actually, because at that time my mother was living in Castle Bytham. Which is difficult to get to when there’s no train going. Well, there used to be trains running through there but there’s not any more, after Beeching, you know.
Int: Yes, indeed.
MC: We had a wonderful train service, even got an evening paper in the village and it came from Leicester, the train, and went through to Spalding and right to the coast.
Int: Oh right!
MC: Yes. And it was Beeching that cut that out. Yes, we used to get an evening paper.
Int: So what would you say, what are the memorable things about working at Hemswell and Ingham? I mean there must be some day-to-day funny situations that occurred that you remember to this day?
MC: Well I always remember the buzz that you knew when operations were on. No, no one had to come and tell you because everyone was rushing around and you know, doing things. They used to issue a Battle Order in the morning and if it was brandy we were operating, if it was lemonade they were standing down. But, I think that, it really impressed me, that did, how everyone sprang into a quicker pace, and you know, you knew if you were on the station, oh yes they would be operating tonight.
Int: Operating tonight.
MC: And another thing is, it was so nice, that when the war was just finishing, they flew over to Holland a lot to drop food, for all those people that were starving you know.
Int: Operation Manna.
MC: Yes.
Int: Was it called Operation Manna?
MC: Yes. They were going to allow so many people to go and they had to volunteer. Well I volunteered but unfortunately the day it was my turn and they came for me, I was at home on leave, so was sorry about that, cause they said they were waving tablecloths and you know.
Int: Ah, that’s tremendous.
MC: They were so pleased to see the British Air Force.
Int: We’ve looked at the operational records and it shows that right at the end of the war, RAF Ingham was used with the big hangars that they’d got to store a lot of the food for Operation Manna so I presume that yourself and other people that were on the MT Section, the transport, would have probably come down to pick up the food to take it back to Hemswell to put it on the aircraft did you, or were the aircraft drops from Hemswell or from other?
MC: Oh, well I think they went from other stations but I know Hemswell sent quite a bit.
Int: Sent some stuff on Operation Manna, cause we found records.
MC: I’m so sorry that I missed it, you know. I thought oh that would have been lovely.
Int: That was your one opportunity you had a chance to go in the aircraft then.
MC: Well I had been in a Wellington bomber, I think told you before, and I did go in a Lancaster when he was evening exercises, it was in the summer time, what we used to call circuits and bumps, you know, and we got a, did a circuit and we landed and got going again and the tyre burst so the aircraft sort of went over sideways a bit, [laugh] but er, no, yes, I’ve been in a Lancaster and I went in a Wellington as well.
Int: Oh, I am so envious that you’ve actually flown in a Wellington, because of course there are no airworthy Wellingtons, there’s only two, two Wellingtons in existence now: one’s down at the Hendon, the RAF Museum at Hendon, and the other one is at Brooklands, where they were originally made.
MC: Oh really!
Int: By obviously Vickers Armstrong at the time.
MC: How lovely, yes. It was lovely, because we flew, it was a training exercise obviously, for the aircrew, otherwise I wouldn’t have been on it; they were just sort of giving me a free, you know, taste. We flew all around Lincoln Cathedral, all round there and do you know, it looked so beautiful, it looked like the tooth fairy in those original advert for toothpaste I thought how beautiful it was, it was really lovely. I told you the groundcrew were saying oh I wouldn’t go in that, it’s got a hole in the canvas or something! No, it was lovely aircraft, yes.
Int: Oh, that’s tremendous, yes.
MC: I was quite attached to the Wellingtons, a sort of tail coming up.
Int: I know. Not perhaps the prettiest of aircraft but certainly very much the robust, and they made more of those than they did of Lancasters during the war, so, but it’s just that the Lancaster I think because it’s, it looks a more, I don’t know, pretty’s not the right word to use, but.
MC: Bit more aggressive, isn’t it.
Int: Yes, and maybe a little bit more graceful. The Wellington always looked a bit short and chunky didn’t it, but a very, very good bomber and that’s why they kept going for so long I think.
MC: I can remember a crew saying to me, my boyfriend’s crew actually, and he said we’ve got the newest and fastest bombers and they’d just had a delivery of the Lancasters and I thought well a big step up from the Wellingtons, weren’t they.
Int; Very much so, power wise and the amount they could carry. Did you stay as a WAAF right to the end of the war, did you?
MC: Well no, when they finished operating and dropping bombs, I was sent down to Air Ministry in London.
Int: Oh right.
MC: And at that time they were bringing a lot of sensitive stuff back from Germany and I was taking um, high ranking officers out to, Hendon is it?
INT: Hendon, yes.
MC: RAF thing, and they were bringing all this fibreglass things and all sorts of things back and, it was MI5 really, work, [laughter] so I can understand a bit of your setup! And they were bringing this stuff back and this Wing Commander used to want to go out and have a look at this stuff and check it I suppose and do things like that and I had to drive him round there.
Int: So you did a lot of driving round London then really.
MC: What a change from driving round Hemswell to Lincoln! I was terrified the first few days.
Int: I’m not surprised.
MC: Because you got round the, I can’t remember the name of the place in London, round that corner, some corner in London, and the traffic, they used to come up right almost scraping the paint off your car - course it wasn’t my car, I didn’t have to worry about the expense.
Int: No!
MC: I still didn’t want to crash and they were dreadful, round Hyde Park Corner, any time from three thirty, was a nightmare, after coming from the lovely ribbon like roads of Lincolnshire.
Int: Indeed yes. And you occasionally met another vehicle coming the other way and that was about it.
MC: Well the taxi drivers used to push in in front of you and I got as bad as they were in the end, you know, pushing in.
Int: You get used to it, don’t you, yes.
MC: But er, no, I wouldn’t like to have to do it today!
Int: So, just going back a little bit to when you were talking about when you were at Ingham, did you make many good friends at Ingham, did you have?
MC: Oh yes, yes, it was nice.
Int: I suppose all the girls that were in your -
MC: Oh yes, I was going to show you some photographs. Shall I put the kettle on?
Int: Please. I’ll just turn this off for a moment as well.
MC: If you want to use the bathroom it’s upstairs.
Int: Thank you. It’s still not the same, looking at anything, looking at a picture or something that’s written down, is almost two dimensional, the minute I talk to you or anybody like yourself that were there as veterans, it makes it three dimensional, it’s so, so different. Please, if you care to take a seat and then I’ll sit next to you have a look at the photographs.
MC: Yes. We’ll have tea.
Int: Oh yes, we drink tea first. Oof. [Crockery sounds]
MC: Oh yes, it’s, there was a spirit about, everyone seemed to be willing to help everyone else, you know, you’ll never get that again, I think, quite like that.
Int: I don’t think you do these days, with most young people these days, they’re out for themselves rather than the collective spirit.
MC: Yes. Exactly. Yes, it was a wonderful time to be alive, really. You know the awful things were happening but at least you could help and do something about it.
Int: You felt what you were doing, as you said, very long hours through the night.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: But you felt at least you were doing your part on the ground whereas the aircrew were doing their part in the air.
MC: You now, Air Commodore Cousins that made that film, I’ve got a copy of it: ‘The Night Bomber’, have you seen it?
Int: The one from Hemswell? Yes, it’s like twenty four hours in the day, yes.
MC: Yes. Exactly. Well Air Commodore Cousins was a Group Captain in charge of Hemswell, at one time, and then he was promoted and left it, but he made the film after he left Hemswell, but he was able to go and have the hangars done and everything organised for him – for the film. But he came in, I was on night duty actually, in MT Section, and he came in, had a look round, about two in the morning, and you know what it was like, there was no one there to have tea cloths or dish cloths or any washing up things, there was just a tiny little basin with cold water and you had to put water on the stove, you know the sort of stoves they had, to make the tea, so I made him some tea and I said I’m sorry, I must apologise for the washing up; there’s no tea cloths and no washing up at all, [chuckle] you just put the water in the cup and swished round and hoped for the best!
Int: Did you get on to the film yourself? Were you seen on the film driving at all?
MC: Oh, the film he made? Yes. Oh yes! I’m on the film.
Int: You’re on the film are you? Oh, tremendous!
MC: Yes. Only for a second, if you close, blink, you miss me, but when they were coming out of the briefing, they come all, coming out of the briefing and coming to get in my, well it was the lorry I was driving that night. The corporal driving the van, he wanted to be in the film you see. He sat in the office every day, never came out, but for the film he did!
Int: For the film he had to come out.
MC: You just see me at the bottom, the trousers on and jacket just as they’re coming out cause some of them were coming to get in my lorry, they used to hang onto the thing in the back of the lorry, if no crew was available. We only had two crew buses, and you did, if you blink you might miss me, but when they’re coming out, if you see it, look for me when they’re coming out of the briefing, from the locker room, got in the Mae West and everything, and they’re coming to get in the transport and I just appeared at the back, for a few moments.
Int: And that’s it is it?
MC: I’ve been told this corporal, when they were making the film in another part of the aerodrome, I drove up saying where’s Joan, I thought she was driving the crew bus today and they said get out of the way, get out of the way we’re making a film! [Laughter] So I thought on the second occasion I’d better sort of not be around.
Int: Oh, well that’s good.
MC: You just see me for a brief few minutes.
Int: I’ll have to have a look now.
MC: In my trousers.
Int: My goodness me. Well once I’ve seen you on some of these, the photographs you’re going to show me, it’ll be, it should be easy to spot you, anyway, on the Hemswell thing. Now I do remember I think at the time, he was a Group Captain Cousins, and he definitely flew some of the missions, not many, from Ingham.
MC: Oh he did, yes.
Int: Cause from the flight records that was either with 199 or it was with 305 Polish, it wasn’t 300, so it may well have been 199 that he flew with, maybe it was just to keep his um, flying hours up or something because I did think at the time it was strange to have a Group Captain flying in an aircraft, but that was probably why. That was to keep his hours up.
MC: He was ever such a good chap. You know I mean how many Group Captains go around at two in the morning see if everything’s running all right?
Int: That’s tremendous, yes. I’ll have to, I’ll see if I have a photograph of him.
MC: Oh my God, you know! He was Station Commander, Group Captain at that time and he’s sitting in the rest room there. [Laugh] Such a surprise!
Int: But then you do get a mix, even this day and age, you get a mix of people who are Station Commanders. some of them are nice and very approachable and some are very kind of awkward and standoffish. I suppose that’s just individual personalities isn’t it.
MC: Well I tell you what, I was invited to an Officers Mess dance, somewhere in the Wolds, I can’t remember the place now, and this Squadron Leader came and picked me up, it was a friend of a friend, he came with his car and picked me up and took me there and I was there, and of course really, although it was a dance, we hadn’t got enough clothes with us in the WAAF to have long evening gowns and all the stuff they have today, we just didn’t have it and I was there and suddenly I saw him approaching the door the same time as me! Oh my god I thought, here I am at the Officer’s Mess dance and the Group Captain from my station’s here!
Int: And he’s gonna wonder why you’re there!
MC: And do you know what he did? He just winked at me and went on! [Laugh] I thought oh, that’s nice!
Int: But did he recognise you do you think? You think he recognised you?
MC: Yes, yes. I’m sure he did, otherwise he wouldn’t have winked, would he.
Int: No. That’s probably true, what a pretty young lady, you know [laughter]!
MC: He just looked round and smiled and winked at me so I thought oh, perhaps he’s not going to say I’m doing something I shouldn’t. Cause I was only an ordinary LAC you see.
Int: Of course yes, almost, almost to them the lowest of the low really! [Laugh] Did you ever have any, were there any dances at Ingham while you were there at all?
MC: Oh yes, oh yes we did. Cause I remember one night and the atmosphere changed so suddenly because three of our aircraft hadn’t got back; we lost three in one night.
Int: Oh dear, so.
MC: The whole atmosphere of the place changed.
Int: That was during the dance itself?
MC: Yes, during the dance when the news came back that three of our aircraft hadn’t returned; cause we all knew the crews you see.
Int: Indeed.
MC: Yes, oh yes. It was awful really, when they didn’t come back.
Int: Where did they hold the dances at Ingham then?
MC: Well they must have held it in the nissen hut I think.
Int: Right, okay.
MC: As far as I can remember. [Laugh]
Int; Because just past the airmens mess, where you would have had your, where you had your lunch and your dinner, there was what they used to call The Institute. You probably remember the NAAFI Institute, which was like the club, in the evening where, it was another big building.
MC: It wasn’t the NAAFI was it?
Int: It was the NAAFI, yes, that’s what they were called, the NAAFI. Where you had different rooms in there, and that’s why I was thinking did they hold the dances in there, and things.
MC: No, not in the NAAFI.
Int: No, they were up in the nissen hut near the WAAF, near the WAAF quarters.
MC: I’m not sure, and I can’t, I couldn’t pinpoint where we had the dancing, but I think it was, er, really where the, um, not far from the Control Tower I don’t think. Is the Control Tower still there?
Int: The Control Tower is still there, but the gentleman, because obviously the Control Tower, there was a big house next to it, in the middle of the airfield, it’s called Cliff House. I think some of the officers used it to live in, so it was literally about twenty yards from the Control Tower and that has been, that’s been quite derelict, and the owner of the house in the middle now, he’s a doctor, [crockery sounds] and he decided rather than knock it down, he’s rebuilt part of it so it’s still got that square shape to it.
MC: Oh really, do you know I don’t remember that.
Int: But er, it’s a, he’s turned it into like a gymnasium, so he’s, it’s still got the same shape, but unfortunately -
MC: Shape, you can recognise it.
Int: Yes, yes.
MC: Is the pub still there, where we used to go and have a quick drink?
Int: The pub? Yes. It’s called the Windmill now [emphasis], because there used to be a windmill opposite it, on the other side of the road. The landlord and lady, landlady have been there since about 1964. They’ve retired a couple of times but just keep it open for fun I think! But obviously I don’t know whether it was called The Windmill a long, long time ago.
MC: No, I can’t remember what it was called. I know we used to have a quick sort of drink there and, but it was so obvious, such a temptation. It backed on to the perimeter you see.
Int: Indeed, yes, and we’ve walked around the back and there are still several of the old buildings left there. There used to be three hangars on the airfield: one to the north, one near where the pub was, and there used to be one over on the A15 itself, right next to the A15; it’s on three sides of the airfield.
MC: I can’t remember that.
Int: No. But then again, if you didn’t have to drive round there you probably wouldn’t have noticed those. Did it seem a very strange place, RAF Ingham, from what you can remember, because it was very, it wasn’t like Hemswell, it was.
MC: Oh no, nothing like that, no.
Int: Just an old grass airfield.
MC: Yes. Did I tell you? I perhaps, I don’t know whether I told you or not, when we used to put goosenecks out? If an aircraft was, got to the coast and was returning early, the sergeant from the Control Tower and I had a little standard van with a cloth covering over, can you, I don’t know if you ever saw one?
Int: Yes.
MC: It had a sort of irons over like that, and a cloth, and the back was open, and they used to take him round and they used to put, made a sort of runway, lit it up with these goosenecks. It was paraffin inside, and they set the paraffin alight and just put these down on the ground.
Int: Just a, like a kind of runway lights.
MC: One night, I was timing it, I could see through the back because the canvas thing was here you see and this was all bare and putting the goosenecks in and out, the sergeant from the Control Tower.
Int: Oh, so he didn’t just light them, they were already, he actually put them out and then lit them.
MC: Oh yes, yes.
Int; I didn’t know they were already out. Put them all out.
MC: We had to manhandle them and put them out, yes. And I happened to look round at the back and there was great big Wellington lumbering along behind there and I thought my god, get off the runway quick! [Laughter].
Int: Oh dear!
MC: Yes. That was a, cause I probably realised that he might have been in such difficulties that he couldn’t control it as he would like and here was I sitting on the edge of the runway, so I got off quick. Yes, it used to be quite exciting.
Int: Did you have any, to your recollection, did you have any where the aircraft actually kind of crashed on landing when they came back? Did you ever see any of that?
MC: Not, no, not while I was around and out there. We had, well we had two crashes on the station while I was there. One of them was, there used to be a big green in the, at Hemswell, [horn sounding] separating the men on that side, the housing, the men were billeted in houses and the same on that side, and the aircraft sort of got back to base but crashed on this huge piece of green grass and the gunner was dead in the back of the turret. It was awful, you know, to see him there, but I mean they didn’t stand much of a chance to get out did they.
Int: No, not if it came down like that, no. The problem with the gunner, the rear gunner, of course is that he’s in a little capsule bubble.
MC: Yes.
Int: And if the, because the whole turret, as you probably remember, rotated.
MC: Rotate round.
Int: You had the little doors at the back, behind him.
MC: And then they’ve got their parachute and things on.
Int: And if it was jammed round at a strange angle he would not have physically been able to get out, so that was pretty er, pretty horrendous.
MC: And then there was another time there was a Flight Lieutenant and he was due, he’d done his two tours of ops and he was looking forward to sort of a fairly normal life, and someone was sick and they couldn’t go so he took their place and they crashed into the hangar, edge of the hangar; they were all killed. And then there was an ATA, I always remember her, brought in a new aircraft, beautiful new aircraft, and I thought uh, wouldn’t I love to be doing that, you know. And anyway, they took off and there was a Squadron Leader with her, and whether he was going through the controls or not I don’t know, because the ATA didn’t have much time to study the controls, did they.
Int: No, no that was it.
MC: On those things.
Int: They flew all different kinds of aircraft as well.
MC: They took off and I had to go somewhere and I came back and they said do you know, that aircraft that took off, and this beautiful ATA girl, lovely she was, so pretty, and they said it’s just crashed, they’re all killed. Yes, and they were just sort of trying it out I think. But yes, it was very sad in many ways. [Pause] There you are. I wouldn’t have missed it, you know, the experience of being in the services. Lots of trying times when I put sort of old, crisp bread on a toaster, I’d come in hungry and the cookhouse was closed. [Laugh] They give you those straw things to put your head on you know, it’s not a pillow, when you go in, I thought oh, I can’t do with this, I had to take a down pillow from home. [Laugh] I couldn’t go to sleep well with one of those. And the irritating thing used to be kit inspection.
Int: Oh, you still had those through the war did you, kit inspection?
MC: Oh yes! [emphasis] Had to be polished and laid out and woe betide you if it wasn’t as it should be.
Int: Who did the inspection? Was it the Station Warrant Officer, or?
MC: No, WAAF, WAAF officer.
Int: Oh, the WAAF officer.
MC: And do you know I was put on a charge, everybody thought it was a huge joke, because I’d got a silk scarf on my battledress thing, collars were a bit stiff, particularly at two in the morning and you were nearly nodding off. So I used to wear a silk scarf and the WAAF officer came down, round, one evening and I was put on a charge for being improperly dressed. And the thing was, what did they give me to do for my charge? Was to go up the Officers Mess cookhouse, peeling onions. [Chuckle] And they kept opening the door and looking in and saying what are you doing there Marion, [laugh] cause they knew me so well taking them out to the aircraft.
Int: Tears streaming down! You must have smelt of onions for days afterwards.
MC: [Laugh] Oh dear, that was my punishment.
Int: Oh, dear me.
MC: You wouldn’t think they would bother about not wearing a -
Int: No, think more important things to do, you know. Gosh.
MC: Yes, and I thought I was much more comfortable with the silk scarf round my neck than the tight collar. However, it all went off quite well and was a huge joke really – or they thought it was.
Int: So you were saying earlier that you had to wash, obviously there’s no laundry, you had to wash your own clothes. I presume they obviously, [clink of china] whoops, they provided you with an iron and an ironing board to iron your clothes with, that was in the -
MC: No, I don’t know, I just can’t remember what we did. I think we saved it up, I sent mine home by post I think! We saved it up and did it when we could. If we were going home on a day off or something you’d do it then.
Int: That’s when do all your ironing and things.
MC: Yes. It was difficult times, yes.
Int: Yes, yes. And certainly if you were working from early afternoon right the way through to the middle of the night –
MC: Oh yes. That was awful really, the night duty.
Int: You try and sleep during the day time as well. That’s not always the easiest of jobs is it.
MC: No, no. Oh yes, it was a long stretch that was. I suppose it was the only way they could do it because you know, there weren’t so many drivers you see.
Int: No, indeed. If the vast majority were female, were WAAF drivers, then the small number of you have to keep doing all the different jobs you had to do.
MC: Yes.
Int: So did you have like a sergeant in charge of you, or a corporal, or somebody?
MC: There was a corporal in the MT office. Yes.
Int: MT office. And thing is all the vehicles that you drove in those days are probably sitting in museums somewhere now aren’t they. Everything from like the little, was it Austin 9, or Hillman 9? They were little cars, weren’t they.
MC: Do you know, I did my training, they made us, even though we could drive, well I could drive anyway, they sent us up to Wales and we had sort of um, like a Hillman, only it was a van. That’s what we started, we had to be trained, RAF way, and then we went out the following week and there was all these big lorries lined up, so we looked and thought good gracious they’re not expecting us to drive those are they! [Laughter]
Int: And they were!
MC: They were. And the thing was, I thought my instructor seemed very nervous and itchy and you know, watching what you were doing every moment. Someone told me, we were driving in Wales at this time, someone told me that he’d had a previous pupil and she’d taken him down one of these ravines; they’d gone over the edge. So no wonder he was nervous!
Int: I’m surprised he was still doing the job, yes.
MC: So no wonder he was nervous, I thought, oh gosh this man is very nervous.
Int: Could we have a look at your, your album.
MC: Oh yes, he used to -
Int: I tell you what, you sit down, I’ll pass it over. There we are.
MC: Thank you very much, I can.
Int: I’ll kneel down next to you if that’s all right.
MC: Oh yes, do. Pass it over.
Int: Just leave that.
MC: Most of my family -
Int: Is that you is it?
MC: No, that’s my sister Pat, this is the one that’s just lost her husband; he died last week, yes.
Int: Oh right.
MC: There’s one of my co-drivers, at home with her mother. And that’s another one, she was in the MT. Oh, there’s me as a child! [Laugh] Oh.
Int: Either of those you? No?
MC: Oh. Which one? That’s my sister again. That’s me, yes; that’s me, that’s me there.
Int: Very nice.
MC: That was our paddock, a two acre paddock behind the house there and that was in to the back street at Swayfield.
Int: So these were taken before the war were they, or just at the very beginning.
MC: During the war, yes.
Int: Just during the war.
MC: Now wait a minute, give you the right ones.
Int: Now can you remember, can you remember your service number, cause most people?
MC: 2053210.
Int: There we go, isn’t it amazing, it sticks with you all, all through your years.
MC: Here you are, there’s the first one.
Int: Some pictures of the coast. Oh look, there’s your crew bus.
MC: Yes, there we are, there’s a friend of mine there, that’s Joan, she was, there’s another one. I don’t know what aircraft that is? That’s me in uniform.
Int: There’s a picture in the distance there, is that Hemswell? Or is that? No, that looks more like a cricket ground.
MC: Lords. That was my rest room when I went down to London, to Air Ministry.
Int: Oh right.
MC: Yes. Oh here we are, we’re getting to it.
Int: Yes. That’s, that looks like a Lancaster cause it’s got the twin parts.
MC: It is, yes, and this is the skipper there, that’s him.
Int: And is that you in the middle then?
MC: This is me, here. Must have been a windy day, my tie.
Int: Would that have been at Hemswell then?
MC: Oh yes, Hemswell, yes. That’s Bob something his name was, oh yes here, Bob, you see we knew them all so well.
Int: Which was this?
MC: Hemswell.
Int: I’m just thinking which squadron would that have been then?
MC: That’s a Lancaster, isn’t it.
Int: Yes.
MC: [Pause] This is more.
Int: Oh yes, more pictures of you. Is that you with your friends?
MC: Yes. And then there’s, that’s a friend of mine, yes.
Int: That’s you with the ambulance.
MC: This is, they’re all crew bus drivers, those girls are. She’d lived down south and a beautiful wooded area, I can’t remember the name of it though, and that’s Joan. This is a friend of mine. Oh, and you can look, we were, I was volunteered to shovel snow off the runway there.
Int: Oh! Next to the aircraft!
MC: Because the Ardennes offensive was on and they were suffering over there and we couldn’t get aircraft off the ground, because of the snow. So I volunteered to go and clear the runway. There was about four women, all the rest were men.
Int: Are you one of these?
MC: That’s me.
Int: Oh, the furthest one, yeah?
MC: That, we were on our way out to the pub at the village near, and that’s a great friend of mine, Pat.
Int: Was this Ingham or was this Hemswell?
MC: This: Hemswell.
Int: I’m just intrigued with the bridge. That’s a lovely kind of stone bridge, that should be easy to spot these days; that must be around somewhere.
MC: That’s not at Hemswell though.
Int: That’s not at Hemswell, oh, no.
MC: That was taken, we’d all gone out to the pub, on the Market Rasen road.
Int: Ah right.
MC: This is a, I’m not sure, this is a Wellington bomber, isn’t it, in the snow.
Int: Um, it looks Wellington yes, because it tends to sit up. Was that you as well?
MC: No. That’s a friend of mine. That’s me there.
Int: Yes.
MC: Yup, and that’s me there.
MC: Definitely you. With your big grey coat on. Oh! And that’s definitely you cause of your - that’s a lovely one that, isn’t it. Did one of the aircrew give you this?
MC: Yes. One of the, yes, they did it actually. Oh here we are, clearing the snow off the runway! You see how thick it was.
Int: They got everybody doing that did they? Everybody was doing that, or just MT?
MC: Well a lot of the men were, but not many of the WAAF. But er, and here, this is a Polish pilot that one.
Int: Yes, and this is a Polish aircraft because you can’t see the B on it, but H. BH was 300 Squadron, so.
MC: And the thing was that the chappie taking the photographs said get close together, get close together! And I thought [laughter].
Int: Oh yes, you’ve got it down there: 300 Squadron. Just read that now, yes.
MC: Oh yes.
Int: And are you on this one? Oh, sick quarters staff.
MC: Yes. No, I’m not on that one but I spent a night doing my MT duty down at sick quarters on a stretcher. Gone to sleep as well! Wait a moment, there’s some more here. Oh this is a, we all went out to the pub.
Int: It’s that, the same bridge you’re on there, yes.
MC: And here you are, these are mostly MT girls. Am I on this one? I’m not sure whether I am on this one. What do I say here? Can you read it?
Int: Er, let me have a little look. Um, somebody Kay and Peg, going off to, oh, going off to be demobbed it says. Somebody else at first, is it Joan? Or a name like that. Somebody else, Kay and Peg going off to be demobbed.
MC: Oh yes. Is that the back, is that the crew bus there?
Int: It looks it. What does this say here? It says WAAF NAAFI, something.
MC: Hemswell.
Int: Is it outwards, or outbounds, at Hemswell. Let me just have a little look.
MC: Yes, you can probably see better than I can.
Int: You have lovely um [pause].
MC: Is that the crew bus then?
Int: It says something and then it says W A A F, the WAAF NAAFI, but I can’t. Let me just have a look in the light. Just one second, [Pause]
MC: Do you know in those days I was offered a little Austin 7, for five pounds! [Laughter]
Int: Did you take it? I can’t work out what that word is, but it definitely says WAAF NAAFI, Hemswell, so whether that’s the NAAFI bus, or you’re just going out to the NAAFI, I don’t know.
MC: WAAF NAAFI Hemswell. I can’t read that. Outside!
Int: Oh, outside!
MC: Yes, outside the WAAF NAAFI.
Int: Oh, so you had a separate NAAFI did you? One for the WAAFs and one for the men then did you?
MC: No, not really. I don’t know, and they used to use that as a crew bus. I don’t know what I’ve got down there. That’s one of the Canadian pilots.
Int: That’s a Lancaster.
MC: That’s a Lancaster.
Int: What does this say? The beautiful old thing was my crew bus.
MC: Oh yes, that was before the lorry.
Int: This, yes it says this beautiful old thing was my crew bus. And that’s you obviously, there.
MC: That’s me in front there. Oh yes.
Int: Let’s have a look up here. You on that one? I can’t see. Again, it looks like Joan or something.
MC: Yes, that is Joan, yes.
Int: Peg, Bill, is it Enid? Possibly. And something else.
MC: Do you know, I can’t see it.
Int: No, nor can I!
MC: This white ink is getting further and further away from it.
Int: Yes.
MC: He was a Canadian pilot.
Int: Right, so that would –
MC: And he was quite friendly with my friend. And these I can’t see. Can you see their faces? I haven’t written under that one have I? Oh yes, I’ve written under that one there.
Int: You’ve written at the side. Erm, [pause] no, I’ll have to have to get a magnifying glass myself to have a look at that.
MC: There we are.
Int: Ah, some other photographs, again.
MC: That’s groundcrew isn’t it. This is the aircrew, I don’t know which crew it is, and there’s me again here look, I’ve got the Mae West on! [Laugh] I don’t know what I was doing there, with the Mae West on!
Int: Would it be possible, for us to borrow this and to, to duplicate some of the photographs?
MC: Yes, that would be a good idea.
Int: And then obviously you’ve still got the original ones, but it would be lovely, because what we can do is, we’ll either photograph them with a really good high powered camera that they’ve got at RAF Cranwell, which we’ve used before, or we can get them scanned where you put them onto a glass plate and it scans them at very high resolution then you can actually reproduce the photograph as good as it originally was.
MC: And can you get them all back to me in one piece?
Int: We certainly can. No, no, it would, we just borrow them to actually get them.
MC: That’s me there, that’s Peggy. That’s Joan. Oh, that’s Lamby we used to call her, I don’t know why it was Lamby. And there’s with the ground crew again.
Int: Flight Boys of something 10. P10 or T10 squadron, oh no, 170 Squadron, sorry.
MC: Oh yes, 170 Squadron.
Int: 170 Squadron, er December ’44 it says there.
MC: There, I’m afraid he was, he was killed, yes.
Int: But I presume when you say flight boys, I think they were the ground crew, weren’t they, because some of them have got the -
MC: Oh yes, on B Flight or A Flight, yes.
Int: They’ve got the leather jerkin on that they used to wear.
MC: Oh yes, oh yes, they’re definitely ground crew. They used to be very important people, you know.
Int: And then this one says –
MC: That’s outside the pub at Caenby Corner.
Int: Oh right, yes!
MC: You know Caenby Corner?
Int: Yes! Now that, that has been empty for about fifteen years now. They’re trying to sell it, and nobody, in fact Max, who I told you about – there was a Polish officer in Nottingham - he asked about the pub, he couldn’t remember the name of it but remembered they always used to have lockins, you know, you could go in there and they closed the doors and shut the curtains and they’d be drinking all night in there you see.
MC: Oh yes, fascinating. We used to go and we used to play that and we’d drink to the Health of Cardinal Puff Puff, [laughter] I don’t think you know that game?
Int: No, but I can imagine it’s um, yes!
MC: Oh yes, there’s the ground crew, yes, and some of the drivers.
Int: That one says. Yes. I’ll have to get my magnifying glass to look at this, cause you, obviously your writing was very, very beautifully written but you write very small don’t you, obviously when you wrote these, yes.
MC: Yes. But interesting to you I suppose.
Int: Oh very much so, yes! [Emphasis]
MC: But if they’d been taken at Ingham you’d have been more interested.
Int: No, but Hemswell as well, because of your connection with it and its [indecipherable].
MC: Some of these people would recognise themselves.
Int: Yes.
MC: What do I say here? Something, so small, isn’t it.
Int: I know, yes. My something crew, R for Roger, er, it was the groundcrew, it says here, groundcrew, R for Roger, er, my something or other. I can’t quite make it out.
MC: What does it say here? Can you read that? No I can’t. 1945 I’ve got. Or is it 1943?
Int: No, that’s actually ‘46.
MC: Oh is it! [Laugh]
Int: Or at least I think so. 22nd of April 1946. It says, I think it says Bremen there. Would they have been going to Bremen?
MC: Oh yes, they went to Bremen, yes. We never realised when, what awful things they’d got to go through when we took them out to their aircraft, and the groundcrew were pretty good. Oh that, he’d a pilot: he’s a Canadian. I remember him, he used to go off to Doncaster for weekends with dubious girls! [Laughter] I kept out of his way! Yes. Well I suppose they only lived once don’t they.
Int: Indeed and -
MC: Well, the time was so short for them.
Int: With everything that was going on, yes they probably felt it more than anybody else, didn’t they, that they had to live life while they had -
MC: While they could.
Int: Yes, while they could.
MC: What’s that? Country Kerry. Oh, that was when I was in Ireland. That’s my sister when she was a tiny girl, and my mother.
Int: That’s Dorothy is it?
MC: Yes. That’s Dorothy, and my parents had the Royal Oak at Swayfield at that time and that was in the pub garden. Oh, that’s the back of the pub. There’s a doorway there now, that must have been very old. Course it is a very old pub but the doorway is now there.
Int; That’s probably kind of late thirties.
MC: The door was there when we were living there, but that must have been before they, that time, yes.
Int: Knocked it through. Oh gosh.
MC: That’s shovelling the snow.
Int: Again! [Laughter] There’s a theme building here, shovelling snow, isn’t there, but!
MC: That was when I was in Ireland I suppose. Can’t pronounce that word, Country Kerry, passenger from. Hmm. That’s my brother who’s, died in September. That’s my dog, just see the little nose, there.
Int: Oh yes, yes.
MC: And that’s my girlfriend’s, the back of her house. She’s gone also. They’ve gone. That’s in Surrey, visiting a friend. Right, well. I don’t know, can you guarantee I’ll have them all back?
Int: Oh yes, I can.
MC: Why don’t you sit on this?
Int: No, no, it’s easier to kneel. Yes, oh yes, and we’d only borrow them a short time, just to get them, to get them duplicated.
MC: And that’s my brother, yes. Sort of mark off the ones you wanted. You see the first few, that’s me as a little girl, [laugh] with the basket, I was a bridesmaid, and that’s my sister.
Int: Oh gosh. Yes, it’s the RAF ones onwards that obviously we’re interested in, and we’d come back to get you to talk us through them. Cause what we’ll probably do with each of them, when they scan them, because they scan them at such high resolution, we can actually make the pictures bigger, so we can give you a set of copies that are a lot bigger so they’re easier for you to see the photographs as well, because that’s what we did for -
MC: Yes. Well, you can see, that was the crew bus they used, and if they weren’t available we would take them out in a lorry. That’s the crew bus.
Int: Who is that?
MC: Oh yes, he was a Flight Lieutenant, but I think he was on Wellingtons, I think he was, and his father was managing director of Kleeneze Brush Company. [laugh] and I remember when I was poorly once he brought me a little flask full of whiskey, you know, to get me better quick! Oh dear. He was nice. But you see they were moved on after a certain time. They didn’t er -
Int: Indeed. But some of these photographs here, especially ones where you’ve got all the crew around you, they’re -
MC: I mean Bob Hartley’s family would probably love to have something like that.
Int: They’re superb.
MC: He’s the skipper: there. These are the members of his crew. [Indecipherable] No wonder they asked us to clear the snow that time.
Int: Yes. But just, the nice thing is, they’re just natural pictures aren’t they, of people.
MC: Yes. She’s strangling him, you see?
Int: Going about their, going about their kind of their work, through the war years but just getting on with it and seeing the funny side at all, of things which is [indecipherable].
MC: We enjoyed yourselves.
Int: That’s lovely itself because it’s got you, it’s got your vehicle in it, which is tremendous. We’re, we are trying to find some of these old vehicles, and see if we can buy one to renovate up, get it running.
MC: Oh really!
Int: They do have classic old ones around.
MC: What about that? It’s a pity that’s not clearer, isn’t it.
Int: You can probably get it clearer though. I mean each one of these we can blow them up a lot bigger.
MC: What do I say there?
Int: Let’s just have a little look.
MC: Hare’s Hound is it?
Int: Yes, it could be Hare’s Hound.
MC: That’s the aircraft name.
Int: Ah, right. I think so, yes.
MC: The name of the aircraft, yes. There’s the crew, you can’t see them very well can you. I think I’m there. There’s the rest of the crew, cause it’s in darkness, isn’t it. What would they do if they had a photography of today?
Int: Well you know, you see so many pictures these days, where they’re colour, cause they’re all colour, and they never, they don’t look as, it makes it look too real, and I think if this day and age if we took more black and white photographs, there’s a lot more contrast in a black and white photograph. I have some photographs of my father when he was in his early, let’s see, must have probably been the late forties, early fifties, and he’s got some, well he’s just sitting at the table, he looks sideways and somebody’s taken a photograph, and they’re black and white and the difference in contrast of everything: you don’t need [emphasis] the colour to make it a beautiful photograph, so. Whereas colour, I think, sometimes detracts away from what you’re actually talking the photograph of.
MC: Yes, yes. And would you sort of tell me when you want it and have it back within a certain time? It’s precious this, to me.
Int: I fully understand that. Now what I’m thinking is, perhaps, because I said to you that I’m going away to Afghanistan next week.
MC: Oh yes, you brave man.
Int: Everything has been a little bit rushed.
MC: Brave but foolish! [Laugh]
Int: Well, you know as well as I do, when you take, in your case it was the King’s Shilling, in my case it was the Queen’s Shilling, when you take the Queen’s Shilling, then you’re in the RAF and if they want you to go somewhere, you go somewhere.
MC: You’re actually in the RAF?
Int: Yes, I’m just finishing, thirty years, that’s, next year’s thirty years. So I’ve had a complete career in the RAF. Tell you what, I’ll just switch this off now.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Marion Clarke Interview
Description
An account of the resource
Marion Clarke served as an mechanical transport driver during the Second World War, her main duties were on Bomber Command stations primarily driving crew buses. She talks about the conditions she experienced such as her accommodation, uniform, leave and dances. Marion recalls some of the people she knew including those who did not survive the war whilst looking at her photographs of the time as well as being in a film which was made about night bombing. She was also interested to hear about RAF Ingham and what is still there.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a third-party organisation which used technical specifications and operational protocols that may differ from those used by the IBCC Digital Archive.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
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eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:14:25 audio recording
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SRAFIngham19410620v060001-Audio
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Creator
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Geoff Burton
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944-12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Anne-Marie Watson
170 Squadron
199 Squadron
300 Squadron
control tower
ground personnel
Lancaster
military living conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
RAF Hemswell
RAF Ingham
service vehicle
Wellington
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1259/17113/MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-04.2.pdf
13c26316304eda118c83c3dd2f141aa1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Whitehead, Tom
T Whitehead
Description
An account of the resource
31 items and an album sub collection. Collection concerns Warrant Officer Tom Whitehead (b. 1923) who served as a rear gunner with 428 Squadron operating from RAF Dalton in Yorkshire. He was shot down over Duisburg and became a prisoner of war. Collection includes his prisoner of war logbook, official correspondence to his mother, official documentation, letters from the Caterpillar Club, German prisoner of war propaganda, 14 editions of the Red Cross prisoner of war newspaper and photographs of Royal Air Force personnel including himself.
Album in sub collection consists of 47 pages of prisoner of war related photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Pamela Hyslop and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2018-03-07
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Whitehead, T
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The Prisoner of War
[symbol] THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE PRISONERS OF WAR DEPARTMENT OF THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, ST. JAMES'S PALACE, LONDON, S.W.1 [symbol]
VOL 3. No.32 Free to Next of Kin December, 1944
[inserted] A Message from the Princess Royal
Harewood House Leeds November 1944.
As the mother of a prisoner of war, my sympathy goes out in a special degree to the mothers and wives and all the relatives of those who have lost their freedom in this War.
Many of them have now endured the strain of long years of separation, and have shown throughout the finest qualities of faith, hope, and courage.
While they all watch and wait this Christmas, may they be upheld by a strong faith in the future, and by the hope of a joyful meeting with those they love – the prisoners whose cheerfulness and patience under the hard test of captivity have been a constant inspiration to their families at home.
I know that all relatives share with me a deep sense of gratitude to the War Organisation of the Red Cross Society and Order of St. John for its constant and devoted care of prisoners of war, and its efforts to alleviate their lot.
[underlined] Mary [/underlined] [/inserted]
THE EDITOR WRITES –
ANOTHER Christmas Day is at hand. On that day the thoughts of everybody in this country will centre upon “absent friends” – on the fighting fronts, at sea, at air stations, in prison camps, or wherever else they may be. And we may be sure, too, that, even more poignantly, their thoughts will be of those at home. They will be present in spirit at every Christmas gathering, and whatever their own Christmas fare may be, one toast will be drunk everywhere: “To our dear ones at home and may we soon be with them.” And they will drink that toast with every confidence this time that their wish will be fulfilled.
Their Christmas Dinners
Last month I said that I was afraid that there was not much chance of Christmas parcels reaching the camps in time. I have greater hopes now. Early in November a ship left a British port with 3,000 tons of parcels, including 1,050 tons of Christmas parcels, on board and sailed direct to Marseilles. With them went 50 Canadian lorries. They will be used, together with the existing rail facilities, to carry the parcels to Geneva, and as the ship's company, the military authorities, the officials of the International Red Cross Committee and everybody else concerned will do everything possible to give them priority there is some chance – I will not put it any brighter – that at least some of the nearer camps will have a real Christmas dinner on Christmas Day. In any case all the camps should have received their parcels early in the New Year, and I have little doubt that, if need be, they will celebrate Christmas a second time with equal gusto.
[page break]
2 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
By Road and Rail
The parcels position generally looks more healthy. The Marseilles-Geneva route has re-opened, and though railway communications are not all they might be, rail and road combined are providing a substantial and increasing amount of tonnage. In fact, if the present conditions continue, there should soon be enough transport to pour a full weekly supply of parcels into Geneva. Nor is there yet any reason to believe that there has been any interruption of traffic between Geneva and the camps. Accordingly the four ships held up at Lisbon, to which I referred a month ago, are landing their cargoes at Marseilles or Toulon (where we have also been allotted berths and warehouse accommodation) and will shortly be leaving to pick up fresh supplies.
Supplies via Lubeck
And that is not all. The transport hold-up had long been foreseen and plans were made for establishing ample reserves at Geneva and for providing possible alternative routes. One such route was by the Swedish port of Gothenburg, and of the supplies sent out there two shipments of 1,000 tons each went forward early in November to the German port of Lubeck, where, as the I.R.C.C. delegate reported on his return, they were loaded into trucks and moved on without delay. Count Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross, has played a valuable part in the arrangements at Gothenburg and the negotiations with the German Red Cross. He and other Swedish officials have recently been in London to discuss questions affecting the servicing and welfare of prisoners of war.
Reserves in Camps
Many of our readers may have read the statement by the Secretary of State for War when questioned in Parliament about the building up of reserves in the camps. “There are stories,” he said, “which I believe to be true, that the Germans are ordering camps to consume everything on hand.” No further news has been received about these stories, which, so far as it goes, is a good sign. I do not think that at the moment and pending the receipt of further information it is necessary to assume that all camps are consuming all reserves, but the Minister was, of course, right in warning his questioners that caution must be exercised in regard to any proposal to build up reserves, unless it was certain that the Germans would allow it.
Next-of-kin Parcels Again
Readers will all have seen in the Press by now the welcome announcement from the Post Office that next-of-kin and permit parcels may once again be sent to prisoners of war and civilian internees in Germany. Full instructions of the arrangements for posting will be found on p.16 of this issue, and relatives are asked to study them very carefully, and make absolutely certain in which category they come. Tobacco, cigarettes, books, etc., may be sent as before, through firms holding censorship Permits.
Prisoners in Air Raids
All information about the location of prisoner of war camps is included in the briefing of air crews, but, unfortunately, in spite of all precautions taken, no camp can be safe from a random bomb, and a certain number of British prisoners of war have been killed in Allied air raids on Germany. In all cases where camps have been reported to be situated near military targets, in contravention of the Geneva Convention, the delegates of the Protecting Power have made immediate complaints. Strong representations have also been made by H.M. Government, but the Minister of State informed Parliament that in several cases the German authorities have not complied with these demands. In some instances, however, prisoners have been moved, and the Government will continue to press for action to be taken.
[photograph]
This is how the band at Stalag XVIIIA looked at Christmas last year.
Mail at Last
We have all been cheered by the two large batches of mail which have recently reached this country. The efforts of the Post Office have meant that most relatives of prisoners of war and civilian internees have now received letters from Germany. Every effort has been made to effect delivery as rapidly as possible, and the Post Office hopes that the relatives will be able to look forward to a more frequent arrival of letters in future.
P.o.W. Wins Competition
It is a wonderful testimony to the morale and mental fitness of p.o.w.s that a British prisoner of war has won first prize of £250 in a British Legion Essay Competition for men and women in the Forces. He is Lieutenant G. H. D. Greene, from Cheltenham, who is in Oflag VIIB, and he gave a spirited and idealistic account of “My Ideas and Hopes for Post-War Conditions” which was the subject chosen for the competition.
Among the 1,118 competitors were no fewer than 95 entries from prisoners of war, and the Legion has decided to allot another £75 in prizes to prisoners of war who were handicapped in competing and whose entries arrived after the closing date.
How Much They Mean
A gunner recently repatriated from Switzerland wrote almost immediately after his arrival to thank the Red Cross and to pay tribute to the military authorities for their repatriation arrangements. “Probably hundreds of other man,” he says, “have already told you how much the Red Cross food parcels meant to us in Italian prison camps, but I really cannot help saying how much we looked forward to them during periods when the outlook was very bleak indeed; I often thought then that if the people here at home knew just how much they meant to us there would never be any difficulty in raising funds for the Red Cross.”
Least Possible Delay
On arrival at an English airport the party of 100 repatriates were taken late in the evening to a reception camp. The gunner's letter continues: “Here the arrangements were amazingly well organised by the military authorities and we were able to give all the information they required, obtain renewals of uniform, clothing etc., draw an advance of pay, obtain travelling warrants and commence our journey to our respective homes shortly after midday of the following day. In fact, a smaller party who came to the camp about 8 o'clock in the morning were also got away with us at 2 o'clock the same afternoon. Relatives of repatriated prisoners of war may certainly rest assured that, if our experience is general, everything possible is done in this country to enable the men to get home with the least possible delay.”
[page break]
DECEMBER, 1944 The Prisoner of War 3
Speed-Up at Marseilles
Lord Revelstoke, Deputy Commissioner for Prisoners of War Supplies, who has just returned from Marseilles and Toulon, describes the parcel situation there.
DURING the last four days of October I visited Marseilles and Toulon.
No Red Cross supplies for prisoners of war have been allowed to enter these ports on their way to Switzerland for the past five months , owing in the first place to interference in shipping between Lisbon and Marseilles, and in the second place to the invasion of the South of France by the Allied armies.
During these critical months, the large reserves, established in Geneva in the spring of this year, for the purpose of supplying the camps in Germany when an invasion of the Continent would inevitably cut our land and sea routes into Switzerland, have been, of course, severely reduced; and it was owing to the grave uncertainty of our lines of communication being reopened that two months ago we advised all Camp Leaders to halve their weekly rations.
Future Supplies
Recently, however, we received a signal from Allied Force headquarters that ships carrying Red Cross supplies could proceed into the Mediterranean, and the object of my visit was to report to London the possibilities of unloading, storing and moving up to Geneva some 12,000 tons of prisoner of war supplies every month.
Thanks to the efforts of M, Eberhardt, the International Red Cross Delegate, General Sir Kenneth McLeod, British Red Cross Commissioner for S.E. Europe (who arrived from Italy), and Major Walter Creighton, Deputy Commissioner, who is now remaining permanently at Marseilles as our representative, I was able to report that the situation is encouraging and that the replenishment of the falling reserves in Geneva is now proceeding.
The Military Situation
It must be remembered that this is the first occasion when Red Cross goods for prisoners of war are being passed through an area which is under Allied military control and that facilities for doing this can only be granted by the military authorities provided that the requirements of the fighting Services have first been met and on no account can any such facilities be permitted at the expense of the battle against the Germans in the south. It is obvious, therefore, that no promise can be made and that any allocation of rail transport to the Red Cross must of necessity be subject to cancellation at any moment.
Special Transport Facilities
The position, however, as it stands to-day is that the military authorities – fully conscious of the urgency of our needs – have been able to give us storage accommodation for 4,000 tons at Marseilles and 5,000 tons at Toulon and are allowing us to discharge the cargoes of our ships at both ports. They have also allocated to us for the time being sufficient railway wagons to move to Switzerland what we are at present receiving.
Under the supervision and control of the International Red Cross Delegate, I saw before I left Marseilles one ship being discharged, railway wagons being loaded, and a train on its way to Geneva. Providing the military authorities are in a position to continue the existing arrangement, I do not think there will be much difficulty or delay in dealing similarly with the cargoes on board the four Red Cross ships which have already left Lisbon for the same destination.
We are hoping that the rail transport will also be supplemented by a road shuttle service of 50 American Red Cross lorries (the majority of which have arrived and are functioning in Marseilles) and 50 Canadian Red Cross lorries which were shipped direct from this country. The International Red Cross are arranging for Swiss drivers and mechanics to be sent immediately for this road service which, in spite of the difficult terrain and the heavy traffic already existing, may prove to be a substantial asset in this complicated transportation problem. It is by this method that it is still just possible, although it must be admitted that the odds are heavily against us, to get to Geneva 1,000 tons of Christmas parcels in time perhaps for some of them to reach our men.
No Effort Will be Spared
Of one thing I am completely confident – no effort will be spared, every possible priority will be given, and not one thing will be left undone by M. Eberhardt, by Major Creighton and by the Swiss drivers to force this Christmas cargo up to Switzerland as speedily as the ships can be unloaded and as fast as the lorries can travel.
It goes without saying that, despite this frantic race against time, our good friends in Geneva will likewise be as keen as we are to do all in their power to beat the clock by Christmas Day.
[photograph]
UNLOADING I.R.C. STEAMER AT MARSEILLES. Consignments for P.o.W.s being transferred to rail waggons bound for Geneva.
[page break]
4 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
Groups from the Camps
[photograph]
OFLAG IX A/Z
[photograph]
STALAG VIIIA
[photograph]
STALAG IXC
[photograph]
STALAG 344
[photograph]
STALAG XXIA
[photograph]
STALAG XVIIIA
[photograph]
STALAG XIIIC
[page break]
December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 5
The Letters They Write Home
[photograph]
Posing for a photograph in the snow at Stalag Luft I last Christmas.
A Thrill a Minute
Ilag VII. 30.8.44.
LAST Sunday, the 27th, we had our international football match, England v. U.S.A. I am very pleased to say that I was picked to play for England.
Boy, oh, boy, what a game! Thrill a minute from start to finish. At half-time, U.S.A. one, England nil, the U.S.A. forward line playing a great game. But in the second half we had them. Fifteen minutes to go we equalised. Then the fun started. With seven minutes to go to full time, we put the second goal in, and holding them out until the final whistle bringing to an end a grand game with a victory for England by two goals to one.
It looks as if I have taken all the space talking about the match, but I know you will be interested.
All being well within the next few days the first batch will be leaving camp for England. So here's wishing them the very best of luck and a safe journey home, chins well up.
Navy Holds an Exhibition
Marlag und Milag Nord (Marlag O). 14.8.44.
THERE have been few private parcels lately. In all I've had 24, including four clothes, so I've been pretty lucky. I'm now back at Marlag O. My operation has healed very quickly for this type and I feel no after-effects. It's a most impressive scar! Calls for a good line in stories.
Last Friday we had an art exhibition here, consisting of paintings, models and handicrafts. It really was an amazing show. There's a war artist in the camp named Worsley; his pictures took up the whole of a large classroom. There were portraits in oils of the S.B.O. and the camp's three V.C.s and
dozens of sketches and water-colours. He also did a still-life study in oils of a Canadian Red Cross parcel, and a fine portrait of Capt. Micklethwaite, of [italics] Sikh. [/italics]
The main show included numerous portraits in oils by amateurs, hundreds of sketches, and about 40 ship models, executed to the finest detail and finish. I spent most of the day in the theatre, where the show was held. It was a much larger and finer show than either of the two I saw in July. Perhaps the Service has more artistic ability and keenness than the Army or R.A.F.!
Football Knock-outs
B.A.B. 21. 6.8.44.
YESTERDAY I played my fifth game of football in five years. You can imagine what a fool I made of myself as I never was much good, but we won, and that's all that matters. We have knock-out tournaments here with two teams, first and second, of eight men from each room of 24. By the time we have weeded out the old 'uns and non-players, you can guess we see some funny games, especially as our field is ankle-deep in sand.
Besides the usual run of concerts we have had those of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas put on, and in my opinion, and lots of others, they did the composers credit. In order of production they were [italics] The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, [/italics] and [italics] Mikado, [/italics] and they are now getting ready for another. We all hope they will not have time to put it on – In fact, the betting is quite heavy.
Y.M.C.A. Celebration
Stalag 383. 5.6.44.
YOU would have been astonished had you seen the arts and crafts exhibition. The inlaying of trays, etc., with wood of Red Cross boxes was quite amazing and included a Mah Jong set with a magnificent box.
To-day we celebrated the Y.M.C.A.'s centenary by having a Drum Head Service on the sports field, at which we had three hymns and sang an anthem. The world vice-president of the Y.M.C.A. and a Swedish Y.M.C.A. representative who now works for prisoners of war were present, and both spoke after the chaplain had given his address.
After the service they were present at a soccer match which resulted in a draw – England and Scotland 2 all. The visitors also saw our latest arts and crafts exhibition and attended the musical festival in the evening at which the military band, accordion band and choir shared the programme.
Interpreter
Stalag VIIIA. 13.8.44.
WE are keeping our chins up and not having too bad a time. We have started running shows here, but I have not taken any part myself as I have too much to do in the administrative line. I don't know whether I've mentioned it before but I have been acting as interpreter here and previously at the other place.
It is really quite interesting, but gives me a good deal to do in the organising line. I've been getting a bit of sport in lately as we have got quite a bit of
[inserted] SEND US YOUR PICTURES AND LETTERS
TEN SHILLINGS will be awarded each month to the senders of the first three letters from prisoners of war to be printed. Copies instead of the originals are requested, and whenever possible these should be set out on a separate sheet of paper, showing the DATES on which they were written. The Editor welcomes for other pages of the journal any recent NEWS relating to prisoners of war.
Ten Shillings will also be awarded for photographs reproduced across two columns, and five shillings for those under two. Photographs should be distinct, and any information as to when they were taken is helpful.
Address: Editor, “The Prisoner of War,” St. James's Palace, London, S.W.1. The cost of these prizes and fees is defrayed by a generous friend of the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation. [/inserted]
[page break]
6 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
[photograph]
Ready to throw a snowball. This group from Stalag IVA includes the Man of Confidence.
sports gear lately, and our most recent arrival was a table tennis set which goes into use shortly.
Your choir news is very interesting, and I hope to be back in the thick of it before very long.
A Good Week
Stalag XIA. 23.7.44.
I HAD a good week of sport last week – two games of cricket and two of football. Also a good day for entertainment last Sunday – a football match between England and Yugoslavia and six contests of boxing in the afternoon. In the evening England played France at football, and to finish the day the dance band played light music for an hour.
Keeping His Fingers Crossed
Stalag IVB. 17.8.44.
As you will see by the address I have now left the transit camp and am staying at a more permanent one. Here they send out parties to small working camps around here, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Since I arrived here, I've met many old friends, both from the last camp (in Italy) and from the regiment. They were all either picked up very early or never managed to leave the camp.
International Games
Stalag IVB. 17.8.44.
SPORTS news from IVB. Newport County soccer team (camp's undefeated hut team) won the fourth cup knock-out by 4-1 against Manchester City. The Yanks defeated Canada, 16-3, at Yankee football. The Russians suffered their first defeat at volley ball by Polish airmen, and they beat the French 4-3 at football after previously losing 4-3. After the “Scotsman” summer cup we are now running reserve team (hut) knock-out – we lost to a R.A.F. team 4-0.
New Prisoner
Stalag Luft 3. 1.8.44.
NOW (at least) you know everything is O.K. with me. I'm sorry if it caused any worry, but that's the way it goes. Can only send total of four letters and three postcards every month, but can receive unlimited; so darling – get cracking please! I'm in good health, no injuries, and thankful to God and the Red Cross. May I quote a proverb? “I had no boots and murmured, until I saw an Arab with no feet.”
Pity the leave situation came unstuck, but I will make amends one day. Will have many tales to tell when I see you, so until then please take very great care of yourself.
No Spare Time
Stalag XVIIIA. 4.6.44.
I HAVE no spare time. I work 14 hours a day in the fields etc., and have to work Sundays. Anyway, we all keep smiling. How are you dear? I am as healthy as can be expected. I do some wood haulage, road making, too, and although my hands resemble a cow's hoof I am getting stronger every day.
Shows and Films
Oflag 79. 22.7.44.
IOLANTHE was produced in the camp last week, and [italics] The man Who Came to Dinner [/italics] was also done – both were extremely good.
21.8.44.
I was delighted to receive a letter dated July 22nd yesterday. Pretty good going! I hope my letters are getting through better now. A film, called [italics] Girl Crazy, [/italics] with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, was shown in the camp this week. It was grand to see an English film again. I am not feeling “down”; I don't think it will be long now. . . .
Outdoor Life
Stalag IVB. 26.6.44.
THERE are a few gardens in the camp and they are doing quite well; in one spot there is a good patch of small bush roses and they are all out in bloom – red and pink, quite nice to look at. I spend all my time outside when it is fine. It will be strange when I return home to have to work inside, especially to wear a collar and tie. Still, I guess one will get used to such minor details as that.
[photograph]
A cheerful group of men at Stalag IVG which is near Leipzig.
[photograph]
A hard fight in progress at B.A.B.20, Heydebreck.
[page break]
December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 7
Varied Occupations
Stalag 344. 2.7.44.
I HAD a grand surprise when I arrived back from work on my birthday. It was Leslie's day off and he had set to first thing in the morning and made me a lovely cake. He used two Yorkshire pudding mixtures – raisins, butter, sugar and dates – then covered it with chocolate. I'll tell you it was a grand surprise.
30.7.44.
The weather is much too hot for “rugger,” but I have kicked a rugger ball around to-night for a couple of hours. I shall be at it again to-morrow; it all helps to keep one fit, which I manage to do quite easily.
13.8.44.
To-morrow the whole camp are being X-rayed, starting in the early morning.
Holiday Spirit
Stalag 344. 8.8.44.
THERE is quite a holiday spirit prevailing in the camp: it is August Bank Holiday.
Yesterday was carnival day, and the cleverness of the entries made one think of home days. It is really wonderful what some of the fellows can make out of Red Cross tins and cartons. The procession, headed by the camp brass band, was half a mile long and included the Scottish pipes band.
An exact replica of a Chinese wedding procession carried the honours.
To-day is sports day, and they are up there at this moment doing battle. I have just given the hot sun best, and came back for a cold bath and to do my writing.
[photograph]
Internees skating on their “home-made” ice rink, converted from the walking ground at Ilag VII.
Not Child's Play
Reserve-Lazarett, Bad Soden. 17.8.44.
THERE have been one or two events recently. A young American officer played eighteen people at draughts simultaneously the other evening, winning seventeen games and drawing one. And I used to think draughts a child's game!
The big thing, of course, was our Arts and Crafts Exhibition, a most creditable effort, considering the small number of people here. There were various groups, and the Braille school was well represented with basket work, stringwork and woodwork. The boys, in fact, walked away with quite a few first and second prizes and several awards of merit.
Gala Day
Stalag XVIIIA.
I MUST tell you how our gala day went off. It actually started on Saturday evening with tug-of-war and wrestling, high and long jump, and it a very pleasant evening. On Sunday the fair was opened and all the side-shows and racing track were going strong with the rest of the racing sports in between. – To finish the day off they had a jumble sale, after which the band played until lights out. The proceeds from the fair and other things will go to the Red Cross, and it was a very nice sum.
Celebrating His Sister's Birthday
Stalag XXB. 21.7.44.
NINETEEN to-day! Many happy returns. I got some lovely flowers for you – red and white carnations and some roses. They smell lovely and have been round your photograph all day.
I have three little window boxes at the sick room and the plants are in bloom. The patients are all fairly well and receive quite good attention. I set them on all sorts of jobs. We are trying to make a rug, and they are cutting up the wool for me. It takes their mind off things.
Happy Camp
Oflag 79. 16.8.44.
THE camp is cheerful nowadays; a load of Red Cross parcels came in by the cartload. The expansion has at last given us a bit of room to breathe. The Scots are all happy now that a set of bagpipes has arrived, and the film crazy can go wild over Mickey Rooney.
[photograph]
The Man of Confidence at Stalag XIIIC sent this picture home.
[photograph]
The final scene from [italics] The Importance of Being Earnest [/italics] at Stalag 383.
[page break]
8 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
Official Reports from the Camps
[photograph]
Oflag IVC, Colditz
Discipline is very strict in this camp.
OFLAG 79, BRAUNSCHWEIG-QUERUM
The total strength at the time of the visit was 1,852 prisoners of war, a further 300 being expected to arrive shortly.
Four new houses have been opened, which gives the officers more room and provides a free space in the middle of the camp. The cellars of the houses are used as air-raid shelters.
Bathing and washing facilities have been curtailed owing to a recent air raid; when the repairs are finished the present installations will be adequate. A kitchen has now been installed and a separate kitchen barrack is under construction for the preparation of private and Red Cross foodstuffs.
The camp revier, which at present has only 58 beds, is being enlarged. 15 beds are permanently occupied by repatriables. Three chapels have been installed. Ten prisoners of war are studying theology and are living according to theological college rules. Theatre, concert and cinema entertainments are excellent. There is no sports ground at present, but the free area in the middle of the compound is being prepared for use.
The prisoners have seven class rooms and six silence rooms at their disposal. The time-table provides for approximately 120 lectures a week.
(Visited August, 1944.)
OFLAG IVC, COLDITZ
The total strength of this camp is 265, of whom 195 are British, the remainder being Dominion and French personnel. Four British were in the camp hospital. The accommodation still appears to be very overcrowded. Two-tier bunks have been sawn in half to make individual beds, which, however, take up more space. Lighting is inadequate.
The prisoners are now able to prepare their own food. They receive regulation German rations and have a good supply of Red Cross parcels. Clothing is satisfactory. The canteen supplies are very meagre, beer being about the only purchase that can be made.
Sanitary installations are primitive. The prisoners can only take one shower every ten days. The general state of health is satisfactory. Those who are in the lazarett are undergoing treatment for slight injuries sustained on the sports ground.
The camp has enough books and a theatre. There are three chaplains who are allowed to minister to the officers. Mail has been much delayed during the last few weeks, and it is feared that this will continue and probably deteriorate in the future.
This would be a good camp if it weren't for the strict discipline which strains the atmosphere between the prisoners and their guards.
(Visited July, 1944.)
DULAG LUFT, WETZLER-KLOSTENWALD
Since the last visit of the Protecting Power in May, 1944, two new barracks have been erected and the mess building has been completed. There are now five barracks, two of which provide sleeping accommodation for officers, two for other ranks and the other is used for offices and sick quarters. The capacity of the camp amounts to 784, including the resident staff, but at the time of visit there were only 410 prisoners, of whom 97 were British and 313 American. These figures change almost hourly, since this is only a transit camp for Air Force personnel, and the prisoners are continually coming or going. There is always a permanent staff of 30.
The sleeping rooms hold from 18 to 24 men, the beds of the triple-tier type. Each bed has a mattress stuffed with wood shavings, a pillow and two good blankets. Officers and other ranks have separate messes.
Toilet and washing facilities are adequate, though up to date there has been no hot water for showers in the barracks. This will, however, be remedied very shortly when the new boiler is completed. In the meantime hot showers are available once a week, and when entering the camp, in the German wash room nearby.
Cooking is done by the camp staff in a very well equipped kitchen, which has adjoining rooms kept separate for dish washing, potato peeling, tin opening and grocery storage. About 90 per cent. of the Red Cross food is used to improve the German rations and produce a more varied and substantial menu.
The sick bay is able to accommodate 11 men in single iron beds. The medical attention given by a German doctor is reported to be good. The medical inspection room has all the necessary medical equipment and supplies. General state of health is good.
There is no regular canteen, and the camp is short of recreational facilities and sports gear. The library is small and inadequate. A walk around the camp is being built, and the annexure of a larger field outside the camp for football, etc., is under consideration. There were no serious complaints, and the camp gave a very good impression.
(Visited July, 1944.)
[inserted] IN every case where conditions call for remedy, the Protecting Power makes representations to the German authorities. Where there is any reason to doubt whether the Protecting Power has acted it is at once requested to do so. When it is reported that food or clothing is required, the necessary action is taken through the International Red Cross Committee. [/inserted]
STALAG VIIIC, KUNAU
There has been no change in the interior arrangements of this camp since the last visit in April.
There were 624 prisoners in the base camp on the day of the visit and 52 in hospital. The total number of prisoners of war in the area dependant on Stalag VIIIC is 2,134. Many prisoners of war have recently been transferred from Southern Germany, which accounts for the increase in numbers.
The prisoners have now dug trenches, which form adequate protection from air-raids.
Every man has a hot shower weekly. The
[photograph]
Some of the prisoners at Oflag 79, where the total strength is 1,852.
[page break]
December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 9
camp is, at present, well off for clothing of all kinds. Laundry is still washed in the camp; two small parties have undertaken to do the washing for the whole camp. One party call themselves “Tigerwash Laundry,” and the other the “Lily-white Laundry.” Recreational and religious facilities are well organised. The men are all very keen on sports and have formed five different sports clubs. Regular league football takes place. The delay in the censoring of mail has diminished.
The German authorities are considering enlarging the camp hospital, thus having it cut off from the rest of the barracks. This should improve the position. The drug supply is adequate, but there is a shortage of material for dentistry.
According to the Man of Confidence the morale in this camp is excellent and everybody finds plenty to do.
(Visited July, 1944.)
LABOUR DETACHMENTS DEPENDENT ON STALAG VIIIC
Detachment No. E.4002, Breslau. –
Strength 48 British prisoners of war. Since last visited in April the commandant has been changed, with a consequent improvement in the general conditions. There were, however, still one or two complaints, the chief being that the men have an half-hour's journey to and from work, which means they leave their billets at 5.15 a.m. and don't return until 5.30 p.m. Their actual working hours are 10 1/4 daily. On Saturday they finish work at 1 p.m. and have Sundays free. These are the same hours as those for German civilians.
They also complained that they have very little football lately owing to the shortage of guards. The German authorities are trying to provide more so that the prisoners of war can play every Sunday. During the week the men play volley ball at the back of a tram depot near their billets.
(Visited July, 1944.)
[photograph]
A wintry view at Dulagluft, where two new barracks have been built this year.
At Detachment E.4008, Brieg, the 76 British prisoners of war realise that the German authorities are trying to do everything they can to improve conditions, and are therefore quite happy. There had been few changes since the last visit in April. The compound has been enlarged, which gives them more room to move about and play some ball games. If a good football field cannot be found the prisoners will be taken out for walks on Sundays.
The chief complaint was bed-bugs. The camp was to be fumigated shortly, but the straw in the mattresses cannot be changed until after the harvest.
Hot showers are obtainable at the factory where they work.
No overalls are supplied to those men unloading coal waggons, but they are given an apron to protect their clothes. Lately some prisoners have had to work on Saturday afternoons and Sunday. The 19 prisoners forming Detachment E.4034 are accommodated in the same camp as those of Detachment E.4008. The men work ten hours a day in a machine factory. They have Saturday afternoons and Sundays free. They sleep in a smaller room adjoining the dormitory of the prisoners of war in E.4008. These men do not get showers at their factory, but the German authorities have promised to obtain the use of the showers that are available to Detachment E.4008.
Detachment No. E.4020, at Stroebel, contains 25 prisoners of war from different parts of the Empire. The men work in a stone quarry for 48 hours a week. Saturday afternoons and Sundays are free. The men have no overalls, but have to work in their oldest pair of trousers. The quarry is very hard on their boots, but they have adequate material for repairs at the present. Medical and dental treatment received from the German doctors is good. The men live in a stone barrack on the top of a hill – this is satisfactory. They do their own cooking.
Detachment E.4026, Maltsch, was formed about nine months ago and was visited for the first time in July. There are 63 English prisoners of war employed in a paper factory. They work ten hours a day. On Saturdays work finishes at 3 p.m. and Sundays from 7 to 12.30 p.m. Every third Sunday is free. These are the same hours the German civilians work.
The men live in a wooden barrack in a rather a small compound situated about 2 km. from Maltsch. There is adequate room for all the prisoners, and the barrack lends itself well to all amenities, but at present is badly organised. The German authorities have promised to try to improve conditions. The men sleep in triple-tier bunks and have straw mattresses. At one end of the room the floor has been raised to make a fairly large shelter underneath.
Cold showers are obtainable at any time in the barracks and one hot shower per week is provided by the factory. The cooking is done at the factory by Germans and is none too satisfactory. There is a four-weeks’ supply of Red Cross parcels in the camp.
Good medical and dental treatment is given by a German military doctor – the men have requested that a sanitary inspector be sent from the base camp. Clothing and boots are satisfactory – laundry is done at the factory. There is no canteen, but beer is given out occasionally.
The men hold a short evening service every Sunday. Football can be played on free Sundays on the public ground if not in use by the Germans. Indoor games are well catered for. Mail is none too good at present.
When the interior arrangements at this camp have been improved it should be quite satisfactory and the men happier.
(Visited July, 1944.)
STALAG XIIA, LIMBURG
Since the beginning of July this camp has been used as a transit camp for
[page break]
10 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
Official Reports from the Camps (continued)
British and Americans captured in North-West Europe. The total capacity is for approximately 150 officers and 3,000 other ranks; at the time of the visit there were 13 British officers and 44 American officers and 749 British and 1,025 American other ranks.
The officers are accommodated in a large, well-built brick barrack. N.C.O.s and other ranks have a compound of their own, with two large barracks and five tents. Half of one of these barracks is the sick quarters and the other half will house the camp staff when formed. There is not much room for exercise.
Officers sleep in triple-tier bunks, with straw sacks and two blankets; there is sufficient sitting accommodation and adequate lighting. Other ranks sleep on wood shavings held together by planks on the floor. Every man has one or two blankets.
All ranks have hot showers on admittance to the camp. Other washing facilities are sufficient, but there is a lack of toilet articles. The cooking was originally done by French prisoners of war or Italian military internees, but at the request of the camp leaders the Commandant has agreed to let the British and Americans do their own cooking. New supplies of clothing are urgently required, most of the men having only the uniforms in which they were captured. Boots are also in short supply. Laundry has to be washed in cold water and there is no issue of soap for men in transit. Each man is issued with a comb after delousing. There is no canteen.
Each prisoner has been able to write at least one letter home. There is little opportunity for exercise except within the camp.
An American doctor is in charge of the camp revier. There were only six patients at the time of the visit, who were suffering from wounds received in action. There are adequate medical supplies.
(Visited July, 1944.)
[photograph]
A view from Ofag IVC. Copy of a painting by a Major who is a P.o.W. there.
[photograph]
[photograph]
Stalag XVIIIA
Two groups of prisoners at this Stalag, which is situated in a mountainous district.
STALAG XVIIIA, WOLFSBERG
The total of British Commonwealth prisoners of war in the main Stalag at the time of the visit was 10,677, of whom 50 per cent. were British, 40 per cent. Australian and 10 per cent. New Zealanders. Of this number 9,355 are employed in 314 labour detachments.
Living conditions in the main camp are, on the whole, good. The cooking is done by the prisoners themselves, and they have facilities for preparing food from Red Cross sources. The only complaint about the food was that although most of the potato ration had gone bad, it was not replaced. Clothing is satisfactory and there is an adequate supply of Red Cross parcels. Canteen supplies are very scarce. The drainage system throughout the camp has now been finished, and toilet facilities are sufficient. All rooms are disinfected at regular intervals.
The library is well stocked with approximately 15,000 English books. The prisoners have their own orchestra and theatrical company. There are two Church of England chaplains and one Roman Catholic pastor in the camp, but they are not allowed to visit works detachments, which is unsatisfactory.
The prisoners have also been stopped the use of the field on which they played cricket outside the compound. There is, however, a sports ground within the camp to which they have access.
(Visited June, 1944.)
STALAG XVIIIA/Z
There are 94 British Commonwealth prisoners of war at the Zweiglager, who are chiefly convalescing after release from the lazarett. There is plenty of room in the camp at present and the only serious complaint is the lack of heating. The full ration of coal is supplied, but is found inadequate considering the mountainous situation of the camp.
(Visited June, 1944.)
[page break]
December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 11
[photograph]
Stalag XVIIIA
Boxing match in progress outside a hut.
STALAG XVIIIA – HOSPITAL
At the time of the visit there were 81 British patients out of a total of 323 in the hospital. The head of the hospital is a German Staff doctor, who is assisted by nine other doctors (of whom two are British) and 23 medical orderlies (of whom 11 are British).
The chief source of complaint was again the shortage of fuel, and the difficulty of organising special diets for gastric cases, which form a third of the total.
All doctors and medical staff are vaccinated. The medical equipment and supplies are adequate. There is, however, a shortage of materials for the manufacture of dentures – in the last year, the dentist, with the help of three mechanics, had made 600 sets of artificial teeth and repaired 300.
(Visited June 1944.)
OBERMASSFELD HOSPITAL
At the time of the visit there was a total of 426 men in the hospital, of whom 50 were British medical staff, 28 British workers, and 170 British patients. The other patients were chiefly American, with only a few of other nationality.
Since the opening of a new hospital at Meiningen the overcrowding at Obermassfeld has been greatly alleviated and it can now be considered a satisfactory hospital.
Cooking facilities are still barely adequate, but a new British chief cook has recently been appointed and it is hoped that his report to the hospital authorities will produce the badly needed second cooking range.
A new operating theatre is also needed, the old one having from constant use become septic. The authorities have promised to help in this and provide a new room if possible. There is still no Roman Catholic padre available.
The water pump has been repaired since the last visit and there is no shortage of water. It is now, for an unknown reason, easier to obtain the necessary supplies for the hospital, including batteries to work certain apparatus!
(Visited July, 1944.)
[photograph]
Oflag 79
Some of the officers who are members of the Camp Law Society.
MEININGEN HOSPITAL
A new hospital accommodated in a former German Army hospital previously a casino or club-house.
Hospital administration is run by Obermassfeld, about 5 km. away. The patients at Meiningen are chiefly convalescents from Obermassfeld. The hospital has a capacity for 800 patients, but at present there are only 244 and 41 on the hospital staff, which includes two British medical officers and two British officers for P.T. and massage. There is also an artificial limb-maker.
One large two-storied building and four modern hospital barracks form the very satisfactory accommodation. The officers' mess is in a tent. The beds are either of the single iron type or wooden double-tier bunks. Each has a mattress, pillow, sheets and two blankets. There are ample chairs and cupboards. Electric light is being installed in all rooms, central heating in the large hall and stoves in all other places are very satisfactory. Washing and toilet facilities are adequate, at present each man having a hot shower on admittance to the hospital and every Friday afterwards.
There is a large and well-equipped kitchen, run by the British hospital staff. The Red Cross parcels are prepared in the kitchen. Clothing is short, but an application for stocks has been made to the I.R.C.C. and it is hoped that enough for immediate needs will be received shortly.
The staff's clothing is in good order. Laundry is done in a nearby town free of charge. Canteen supplies are limited, but cigarettes, tooth powder, razors, etc., are available.
The prisoners have a recreational ground within the compound. They have a small library and adequate sports gear. The band from Obermassfeld pays regular visits; the padre also visits the men whenever required. Mail is irregular and slow.
When completed this should be a very efficient and pleasant convalescent home for British and American prisoners. The German authorities have made an effort to make it a well-organised and well-equipped hospital.
(Visited July, 1944.)
CAMP LIST
Stalag XII D, has been transferred to Wald Breitenbach bei Neuwied (Map Ref. A6).
Stalag XII F, has been transferred to Freinsheim bei Bad Durkheim (Map Ref. B7).
Please add the following:-
(1) Res. Laz. Meiningen (Map Ref. C6).
(2) Ilag XVIII at Spittal Drau, Camp for Civilian Internees (Map Ref. E10).
[page break]
12 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
The Brighter Side
[photograph]
[photograph]
Glamorous Maori dancing “girls” pose in a picturesque setting at an oflag show.
A PRISONER of war who has just returned to Stalag 344 after a spell in another camp writes to say that “the place is absolutely alive with every form of recreation and entertainment conceivable.” He found, to his evident delight, a large central library, a “college,” sports clubs of all descriptions and a theatre, “The day I arrived, although tired, I saw an excellent production of [italics] Me and My Girl, [/italics] and yesterday an international football match – England v. Scotland.”
Portrait Painting
Also at Stalag 344 is a flourishing and successful Art Club. One artist described how the camp is in the throes of another Carnival after which the Art Club was fitting up a stall for the sale of raffle tickets. “whoever wins will have the misfortune to have his portrait painted by myself.” His normal charge for a portrait sketch is 20 cigarettes! They were also selling drawings by other members. As a sideline they have been painting a model of a New Zealand farm which has been made by the Farmers' Association; “they've been working on it for a month and the detail is astonishing.”
The Gloucester Club
Last month we told of the formation of two clubs in Stalag IVB, “The Forward Club” and “The Devon and Cornwall Club.” Now we learn that there is a third, “The Gloucester Club.” This is composed of prisoners who were at school together and who were members of dramatic and other societies in Gloucester. They meet at tea-time every Tuesday, and items of news out of their letters from home are exchanged.
Christmas Reading
In Oflag XIIB they now have a very well-equipped library, so there will be plenty of books to read over Christmas as a change from more strenuous activities such as seem to take place in Stalag XXB. A letter from there relates: “Had a game of football last week, and by gee, sure had a tough game; still feel the effects of it yet.”
A Full Day
A piano, a string bass, clarinets, trumpets, accordions and other instruments have been received at Stalag XVIIA from the Red Cross. A musical enthusiast writes to say “they are really wonderful!” Apart from music there seems to be much to occupy his time: “innumerable study courses are coming into the camp, and I find my days very occupied. Work in the mornings, sport in the afternoons and shorthand or [italics] Othello [/italics] at night.” They are well supplied with sports gear for football, rugger, cricket or even baseball. And the indoor games equipment includes table tennis, chess, cards, monopoly and dominoes.
How Much?
The men in Stalag XVIIIA have ordered a grand piano and they are going to pay for it themselves at the rate of 10 marks a month. One prisoner enquires “I wonder how much we shall pay.” They go sometimes to the local cinema, and although the films are in German, it makes a pleasant change. Big event recently was the arrival of figs, raisins, nuts and dried fruit, sent by the British residents in Turkey. So they will have some traditional Christmas fare.
Musical Debut
The musical show at Marlag und Milag Nord has been a great success, and one prisoner writes to say that it was his musical debut: “What a thrill it was for me on opening night, when that curtain went across! . . . As I write we have done three nights' performances. I played melody and did I go to town – so Jimmy D –, the Leader, tells me.” They were all dressed in white shirts and blue trousers and looked very smart. Their “Tonic Tunes Selection” included Schubert's Serenade, Die Fledermaus and a Foxtrot Medley.
Serial Play
Dorothy Sayers' radio play [italics] The Man Born to be King [/italics] is being done in serial form in Oflag 79. Nor is it the only dramatic activity, for [italics] The Taming of the Shrew [/italics] is being produced shortly. As in Oflag XIIB, a good book is appreciated in winter evenings, and a captain writes: “I do a certain amount of work and other reading of a lighter nature. I've just finished Aldous Huxley's [italics] Antic Hay [/italics] and am now reading Eric Linklater's [italics] Poet's Pub.” [/italics]
Pike Fishing
A warrant officer in the R.A.F. who was a prisoner in Stalag Luft VI reported that besides using the fire reservoir for swimming, they also used to do a little fishing. “A young jack (pike),” he wrote, “which has hitherto borne a charmed life, “roves around the fire pond, having only a dent in the back as a souvenir of a number of attacks with intent.” He was able, however, to add a P.S. that the pike's charm ran out. “We soaked it in salt water before frying and it was a lot better than the bream we tackled on the Broads in more peaceful days!”
[inserted] The paragraphs on these pages are based on letters from prisoners of war. Most of them refer to activities in the big base camps and it should not be assumed that they are typical of conditions in all camps or in outlying working detachments where facilities for sport and amusement are much fewer. [/inserted]
[page break]
December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 13
THE DONOUGHMORE CLUB
[photograph]
Playing draughts in a quiet corner of the lounge.
A FIGURE in “hospital blue” on the doorstep of 5, Chesterfield Gardens, London, W.1, indicates the way into the warmth and spaciousness of the Donoughmore Club, which will celebrate its first birthday in January. The City and County of London Branch of the Red Cross and St. John found that convalescents needed something different from the ordinary Service club, and have provided special facilities for Servicemen and women, ex-Servicemen and the sick and wounded here. Friendly greetings are received from the hostess, who, with her staff, give help and advice unstintingly and do everything that can be thought of to make those who seek the shelter of the club comfortable and happy.
From the twenty-two military hospitals in and around London convalescents who have one-day passes can come and go as they wish, enjoy a concert party, or a sing-song, tea and a chat with friends. Service people can while away the time until their trains are due, or spend those all-too-short “off-duty” hours with members of their families. Sleeping accommodation is available for Red Cross Guides who travel with sick people on their journeys and for relatives who travel to London in order to visit men who are seriously ill in hospital.
Some two hundred and fifty repatriated prisoners of war who arrived at Liverpool in September last and travelled to a dispersal point outside London were entertained at the Club before leaving for destinations in other parts of the country. The men recorded a message of appreciation for the kindness they had received while in Sweden, which was broadcast to Sweden later the same evening. In November more repatriates paid a visit to the Club, this time 70 men, 25 Britons and 45 native South Africans, who were on their way to South Africa. They were all extremely appreciative of the work done by the Red Cross. One of them, who felt the cold climate particularly keenly, remarked that the only rays of sunshine in England were shed by the Red Cross!
With the approach of Christmas, preparations for festivities are in full swing and two parties have been arranged for December 15th and 16th for men and women from the military hospitals who will bring with them nurses and relatives who are in London. The house decorations are in the hands of the City and County of London Committee, who will also entertain and wait on the guests. Lady Limerick is giving a Christmas tree from her estate, which is to be cut down for the occasion. The goodwill and high spirits which are always to be found in the Club are bound to make the season memorable to those who spend it in this pleasant atmosphere of freedom and friendliness.
Wives of Canadian Servicemen on their way to Canada are given hospitality, as also are the wives of English Servicemen arriving in this country from Canada. On these occasions the children seize the opportunity for a good romp and frolic, and on one such day two American soldiers passing by called in to make a donation to what they thought was an orphanage. Of course, they were told about the Club and invited inside to play with the children.
[photograph]
Toys made by sick and wounded judged at a recent exhibition by Miss Enid Stamp Taylor.
There is a very comfortable lounge on the right of the entrance hall where relatives can quietly enjoy informal meetings. Next to the lounge is a well-equipped canteen, where excellent cooking is done on the spot by a homely Scotswoman and her helpers. Light-cream walls and bright lighting make this perhaps the most cheerful part of the whole building. Flags of different countries are hung on the walls. The tables, each seating four people, are covered with green and white check table cloths, and commodious green-canvass chairs complete the colour scheme. Meals are served at any time, as required, and visitors can see their toast, scones and tea-cakes come out of the oven piping hot.
The walls of the lecture room, also on the ground floor, are covered with interesting pictures and particulars of every kind that may be useful. An Army Education Officer attends regularly to answer questions and to help those who need information. Topical talks are given fortnightly on subjects such as historical London and the theatre, and are made doubly interesting by subsequent visits to the places discussed. Basic educational courses are planned for the future, and there are to be talks on music illustrated by gramophone records. Arrangements are also made for guests to be taken out for a few hours by friends of the Club. It is hoped that another exhibition of handicrafts will be held in the New Year and that diversional therapy will become one of the permanent activities.
(Continued overleaf)
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14 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
NEWS OF EXAMINATION RESULTS
FROM outstanding examination results announced by examining bodies during the last month, the following are selections: –
Sqn. Ldr. G. D. Craig and Sqn. Ldr. G. D. Leyland, both in a Stalag Luft, have passed the Final Examination of the Law Society, the latter with distinction. He is the fifteenth prisoner of war to have gained distinction in the Solicitors’ Final Examination. Thirty-one in all have passed the Final.
Other prisoners of war to have taken Final Examinations are Flt. Lt. D. L. d'Anyers Willis (in the same Stalag Luft), Institute of Chartered Accountants, and Gunner C. W. Bodsworth and Sgt. C. C. Harvey, Society of Incorporated Accountants and Auditors.
The Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Highland and Agricultural Society have held examinations in the camps for the National Diploma in Agriculture. One candidate passed in all nine papers, eight passed in all the papers they offered, and eight in some papers.
A civilian internee, who was then in Giromagny, took an examination in Turkish held by the School of Oriental and African Studies, and obtained a first class pass with 82 per cent.
Marlag und Milag Nord (Milag)
The Ministry of War Transport recently sanctioned the holding of an examination in this camp for Certificates of Competency as Master, Mate and Engineer in the Merchant Navy. The candidates were allowed to take certain papers, success in which will be credited to them on their return home.
In the examination for Master there were 21 candidates. Papers were taken in (a) Meteorology, (b) English, (c) Master's Business, and (d) Engineering Knowledge, with the following results:
In (a) 95 per cent. passed, and in (b), (c) and (d) 100 per cent. passed.
In the examination for First Mate, 25 candidates took papers in (a) Ship Construction and Stability, (b) Ship Maintenance, Routine and Cargo Work, and (c) Meteorology. In (a) 80 per cent. were successful, in (b) 92 per cent., and in (c) 96 per cent.
In the examination for Second Mate there were 60 candidates, and the papers taken were (a) Knowledge of Principles, (b) Cargo Work and Elementary Ship Construction, and (c) English. 75 per cent. passed in (a), 85 per cent. in (b), and 76 per cent. in (c).
The Ministry of War Transport, which has expressed great interest, state that they are “very satisfied with the way in which the examinations were conducted, and that the high standard of knowledge disclosed reflects great credit on the organisers of the studies and examinations in the camp.”
FIGURES UP TO NOVEMBER
[inserted] Applications for Examinations ... 14,002
Candidates who have taken Examinations ... 6,202
Results published ... 5,176
Candidates who have passed outright ... 4,177
Candidates who have passed in some papers ... 337
Candidates who have failed outright ... 817
Camps in which Examinations have been taken ... 54 [/inserted]
THE DONOUGHMORE CLUB
(continued from previous page)
By ascending the broad staircase to the first floor a large sitting-room is reached which is cosily furnished and has a radio set, books and fireside games. Long windows give sunlight and fresh air, and a small balcony with deck chairs provides an ideal spot for a sunbath on a warm day. Adjoining this room is the theatre, where shows and concerts are frequently given. Another feature of the Club is the games room, which has darts, bagatelle and other table games. The Army Educational Corps supplies a variety of colourful pictures which are displayed there.
Very many wartime difficulties in equipping the Club and arranging its functions have been surmounted during the first year and it is a considerable achievement by those who have been responsible. Even so, there are always new events, fresh contingencies to be faced and continual arrivals and departures which call for the most careful planning. In the coming year the life of the Club will go on and will be ready, when the European conflict is over, to serve those who are still convalescent in hospital and the men who will at last return home from prisoner of war camps.
World's Largest Card-index
THE International Red Cross Committee at Geneva have now introduced a new classification system into the gigantic card-index controlled by their Central Prisoner of War Agency.
This index, which contains details of every known and sought-for prisoner of war and civilian internee in the world, is made up of over 20 million separate cards and is continually growing.
The new method, which takes the place of the more usual alphabetical system, is based on phonetic methods, and has the great advantage of gathering all the different spellings of the same name into one section. For instance, all the Mayers, Meiers, Meyers, Maiers, etc., are under the heading “Me,” and all the Philips, Filippos, Phillippes, etc., are grouped under F.
As the average number of cards in this index handled daily varies from 300,000 to 400,000, the importance of the innovation is readily grasped.
P.o.W. Exhibition Catalogues
RELATIVES who were not able to visit the Prisoners of War Exhibition in London this summer, and those who came and wish to keep a permanent record of their impressions of it, can do so by sending for a copy of the catalogue. The exhibition portrayed many aspects of the life of our prisoners in Germany, and the illustrated catalogue presents a vivid and informative picture. A number of copies are still available, price 6d, (or 7d. including postage), and those who wish to obtain one may apply to the Red Cross and St. John War Organisation, Publicity Department, 24, Carlton House Terrace, London S.W.1.
[inserted] NUMBER, PLEASE!
PLEASE be sure to mention your Red Cross reference number whenever you write to us. Otherwise delay and trouble are caused in finding previous correspondence. [/inserted]
[inserted] FREE TO NEXT OF KIN
THIS Journal is sent free of charge to those registered with the Prisoner of War Dept. as next of kin. In view of the paper shortage no copies are for sale, and it is hoped that next of kin will share their copy with relatives and others interested. [/inserted]
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December, 1944 The Prisoner of War 15
Polo-Necked Sweater
IN CABLE STITCH FOR WARMTH
[photograph]
Reproduce by courtesy of Harrap Bros. (Sinlar Wools) Ltd.
[knitting pattern and instructions]
[page break]
16 The Prisoner of War December, 1944
NEXT-OF-KIN PARCELS
Arrangements for Resuming the Service
NEXT of kin will have seen in the Press that the G.P.O. announced on November 23 that the despatch of next-of-kin and permit parcels was to be resumed.
As many next of kin would, in normal circumstances, have been entitled to send at least two more parcels in the current year, and as it would obviously be impossible for the Packing Centres at Finsbury Circus and Glasgow to deal with such a volume of parcels without incurring congestion and delay, it has been arranged that not more than one more next-of-kin parcel should be sent with a 1944 label to each prisoner.
Where, however, not more than two parcels have already been sent with 1944 labels during the course of the year, 40 coupons will be issued so that this last parcel may be equal to two in coupon value though the limit of weight remains unchanged. [italics] See instructions sent with labels. [/italics]
It is hoped that the next of kin will accept this plan, which is in the best interests of the prisoners, as it will to some extent avoid overloading the Packing Centres, and will enable one parcel for each prisoner to be despatched with the least possible delay.
Details of the arrangements are as follows and next of kin are asked to study them very carefully in order to see into which category they come. If they are in any doubt they should consult their local Red Cross Prisoner of War representative.
PRISONERS REGISTERED WITH THE PRISONER OF WAR DEPARTMENT BEFORE JUlY 1st, 1944, WHOSE NEXT OF KIN HAVE NOT ALREADY SENT MORE THAN TWO PARCELS IN 1944, WITH 1944 LABELS:–
(a) Next of kin who do not at present hold a label and coupons.
A 1944/4 label and 40 coupons, with a letter of explanation, are being sent to all of these. [italics] No application necessary. [/italics]
(b) Next of kin who hold a label and 20 coupons.
These should apply to the Packing Centres or Finsbury Park or Glasgow if they wish for a further issue of 20 coupons (to be used for one parcel only, in conjunction with the original issue of 20).
(c) Next of kin who are holding a partially prepared parcel but who have returned the balance of coupons to the Packing Centre.
The balance of the original issue, together with a further 20 coupons (to make a total of 40 for the parcel) will be sent to these next of kin [italics] No application necessary. [/italics]
(d) Next of kin who have not yet sent their first parcel and who hold a label and 40 coupons.
These may be sent in their parcel as soon as they like, and are entitled to two further issues of 20 coupons in 1944. These will be sent to them together (making 40 in all) after the despatch of their parcel, if they attach a note to their coupon-account (which must be enclosed in the parcel), asking for them. Otherwise only 20 will be issued.
PRISONERS REGISTERED WITH THE PRISONER OF WAR DEPARTMENT BEFORE JULY 1st, 1944, WHOSE NEXT OF KIN HAVE ALREADY SENT THREE PARCELS IN 1944, WITH 1944 LABELS:–
(a) Next of kin who do not at present hold a label and coupons.
An issue of 20 coupons with a 1944/4 label will be made to these next of kin. [italics] No application necessary. [/italics]
(b) Next of kin who hold a label and 20 coupons.
These may be sent in their parcel on or after the date shown on the label.
(c) Next of kin who hold a partially prepared parcel, but who have returned the balance of coupons to Finsbury Circus or Glasgow.
The balance of coupons will be returned to these next of kin [italics] (no application necessary), [/italics] who may then send in the parcel on or after the date shown on the label.
PRISONERS REGISTERED WITH THE PRISONER OF WAR DEPARTMENT BETWEEN JULY 1st AND SEPTEMBER 30, 1944:–
(a) Next of kin who have sent a first (40 coupons) parcel and do not at present hold a label and coupons.
A 1944/4 label with 20 coupons will be sent to these next of kin. [italics] No application necessary. [/italics] The parcel may be sent in as usual on, or at any time after, the date on the label.
(b) Next of kin who have sent a first (40 coupons) parcel and at present hold a label and coupons.
These may be sent in their parcel as usual on, or at any time after, the date on the label.
(c) Next of kin who have not yet sent in their first parcel and who hold a first label and 40 coupons.
These may send in their parcel as soon as they like. A 1944/4 label with 20 coupons will be issued automatically after its despatch.
PRISONERS REGISTERED WITH THE PRISONER OF WAR DEPARTMENT SINCE OCTOBER 1st, 1944:–
(a) Next of kin who have sent a first (40 coupons) parcel and who do not at present hold a label and coupons.
An issue of 1945/1 label and 20 coupons for use in the first quarter of 1945 will be sent to these next of kin. [italics] No application necessary. [/italics]
(b) Next of kin who have not yet sent the first parcel and who hold the first label and 40 coupons.
These next of kin may send in their parcel as soon as they like. A 1945/1 label with 20 coupons will be issued automatically after the despatch of the parcel.
NOTES
(1) Any cases not corresponding exactly with those detailed above will be dealt with as nearly as possible on the same lines.
(2) The full issue of 40 coupons must be accounted for on the coupon account form, which must be enclosed in the parcel. Any coupons which are left over unused must also be sent back inside the parcel, attached to the coupon account form.
(3) From now on, labels and coupons will be issued in the normal way after the despatch of each parcel.
(4) Parcels will be dealt with as quickly as possible at Finsbury Circus and Glasgow, in the order of their arrival. If the numbers are very great a certain amount of delay is bound to occur, and this cannot be estimated in advance. The parcels are kept in the Post Office bags in which they arrive, until the time comes for each bag to be opened and its contents despatched. It will be understood, therefore, that it is not possible to answer questions about the arrival of individual parcels at the Packing Centres, until the time for despatch of each one has come; and, in order to save work, it is requested that no enquiries of this nature should be sent in.
A note on the position at the Packing Centres will be given in the January issue of the [italics] Prisoner of War [/italics] so that next of kin who have not in the meantime received their next issue of label and coupons (indicating that their parcel has been despatched) may estimate whether there has been time for their parcel to be dealt with.
(5) In order to save work, next of kin are asked in future not to enclose a postcard to be returned to them from the Packing Centre, but to take the issue of the next label and coupons as indication that their last parcel has been received safely and despatched to the prisoner.
(6) Parcels sent with two lots of 20 coupons must be kept within the usual limits of weight (see instructions sent with labels), but they may contain double the usual quantity of chocolate and soap, provided that the extra money is sent inside the parcel, and that the necessary allowance is made for the additional weight.
This does not apply to ordinary first parcels, for which 40 coupons are issued.
(7) It should be understood that the labels and coupons now being issued need not necessarily be used before the end of 1944.
The word “Immediate” on a label does not mean that it [italics] must [/italics] be used immediately, but only that it [italics] may [/italics] be used at once if the next of kin so desires.
Printed in Great Britain for the Publishers, THE RED CROSS AND ST. JOHN WAR ORGANISATION, 14, Grosvenor Crescent, London, S.W., by THE CORWALL PRESS LTD., Paris Garden, Stamford Street, London, SE1.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The prisoner of war, Vol 3, No. 32, December 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Includes: Christmas message from the Princess Royal; editorial matters; speed up at Marseilles (of parcels); [two pages missing] photographs of groups from camps; official reports from camps; the brighter side; the Donoughmore club; news of examination results (includes totals); knitting pattern for polo-necked sweater; next-of-kin parcels. Includes photographs throughout.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Format
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Fourteen page printed document (two pages missing from original sixteen)
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Identifier
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MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-04
Creator
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Great Britain. Red Cross and St John war organisation
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Coverage
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Navy
British Army
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Roger Dunsford
arts and crafts
Dulag Luft
entertainment
prisoner of war
sanitation
sport
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/371/6145/SCavalierRG1264567v10031-0001.2.jpg
e472e4c33fadafe40614d22019f20d47
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/371/6145/SCavalierRG1264567v10031-0002.2.jpg
1bde0f84a13bd3658c556055ac9c1944
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cavalier, Reginald George. Album two
Description
An account of the resource
35 items. The album contains service material, Christmas cards, and propaganda leaflets in German, French and English.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-10
Identifier
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Cavalier, RG
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined] 137. WING. PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION. S.H.Q. VITRY EN ARTOIS. [/underlined]
[indecipherable word] S. L Clark
H Sadler
Hallam Ashley
H. J White
LW Seymore
S Burton
John Varsall
2nd TAF WELFARE
[page break]
2nd Tactical Air Force
[Royal Air Force Crest]
Royal Air Force
Christmas 1944
[Page Break]
Merry have we met
Merry have we been
Merry did we part
and
Merry meet again
from
D Day The Beachhead
Paris
Bruselles
Amsterdam
Berlin
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Christmas Card
Description
An account of the resource
2nd Tactical Air Force Christmas card with seven signatures. Captioned '137. Wing. Photographic S.H.Q. Vitry en Artois.'
Artwork inside card depicting Allied advance in western europe from D Day.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12
Format
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Two sides of a printed card
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SCavalierRG1264567v10031-0001, SCavalierRG1264567v10031-0002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
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France
France--Vitry-en-Artois
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Claire Monk
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
arts and crafts
ground personnel
Second Tactical Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/366/17856/SCavalierRG1264567v10047.2.jpg
977bdabce5f5d81c178365a5ab2817e5
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Cavalier, Reginald George
Reginald George Cavalier
R G Cavalier
RGC
Description
An account of the resource
Eleven items plus two sub collections. The collection concerns Corporal Reginald George Cavalier (1264567 Royal Air Force) and consists of two albums, documents and one loose photograph. Reginald George Cavalier served in the RAF between 1940 and 1945. He trained as a photographer and served with 76 Squadron stationed at RAF Middleton St George before being posted to 2 Group and serving in mainland Europe with 2nd Tactical Air Force in late 1944 and 1945.
Album one contains photographs of his service and includes target photographs, station visits by VIPs, Allied and German aircraft, and scenes in liberated Europe.
Album two contains a collection of propaganda leaflets, service documents and Christmas cards.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Denise Cavalier-Jones and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-10-04
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Cavalier, RG
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Christmas Card 1944
Description
An account of the resource
Inside page of a Christmas Card, dated 1944. An officer in the style of Pilot Officer Prune with a moustache and red nose has a glass of champagne on one hand and a bottle in the other. Beside him are four more bottles. It carries the message 'Merry Christmas from 220 Squadron'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-25
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One printed card
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SCavalierRG1264567v10047
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
220 Squadron
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/194/27209/MAdamsHG424504-170215-01.2.pdf
1081940cd3d5fc25972f96a05b4902d4
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Adams, Herbert
Herbert Adams
H Adams
Herbert G Adams
Description
An account of the resource
88 items. Collection concerns Herbert George Adams DFC, Legion d'Honour (b. 1924, 424509 Royal Australian Air Force). He flew operations as a navigator with 467 Squadron. Collection contains an oral history interview, photographs of people and places, several memoirs about his training and bombing operations, letters to his family, his flying logbook and notes on navigation.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Herbert Adams and catalogued by Nigel Huckins and Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-02-15
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Adams, HG
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[inserted] (There is some duplication of notes for Ops [symbol] 1 to [symbol] 14 as I wrote something at different times (years apart.)) [/inserted]
[inserted] [symbol] Soon after we feathered that engine over “A” Flight commander flew up on our wing top & feathered 3 engines & kept up with us! He was giving us some assurance that a lightly loaded Lancaster could fly level (for a while) on 1 engine … reassurance for a new crew [/inserted]
My navigation Logs & Charts of our operations with 467 (RAAF) Squadron at Waddington, near Lincoln, from 10.9.44 to 16.1.45, with extracts from a publication giving some details of every operation by 467 & 463 Squadrons from 10.9.44 to 25.4.45.
[circled 1] [underlined] LE HAVRE, 10.9.44 [/underlined] 21 from 467, 20 from 463 as part of 992 bombers on 8 different German strong points outside of Le Havre. The targets were accurately marked and bombed, with no losses from Waddington. We took off at 1522, flew to Syerston (nearby), then did a radius of action on a track of 260oT so as to be back at Syerston at 1604 at 8000’. The winds were about what was forecast, 025/15; we bombed at 1723 at 12100’, bomb load was 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb H.E. Two minutes after we dropped our bombs our Port Outer motor stopped (stray AA – fire?), we feathered the prop & flew home OK on 3 engines, airborne for 3h 55 min.
[symbol] On 11.9.44, 218 bombers from 5 Group attacked the German positions still holding out at Le Havre, with no losses. 2 British divisions were attacking Le Havre & the German garrison surrendered a few hours after the raid. The British wished to capture the port intact, but the German garrison had laid mines, and blown up most of the docks, and so it was several weeks before the port could be used.
DAMSTADT, 11.9.44. 226 Lancasters from 5 Group bombed at night, losing 1 crew (all K.I.A.) from 463 Sqdn. Our pilot, Peter Gray-Buchanan, did his “Second Dickie” on this raid.
[circled 2] [underlined] STUTTGART, 12.9.44. [/underlined] 20 from 467, 14 from 463, of 204 from [underlined] 5 Group [/underlined]. (On the same night 378 Lancasters bombed Frankfurt with success.) Post-war, a German expert – Heinz Bardau – wrote that the northern & western parts of Stuttgart city were erased in this concentrated attack… a [underlined] fire-storm resulted [/underlined], with 1171 people killed, the city’s highest fatality figure for the war.
[page break]
STUTTGART (Con’t)
467 Sqdn lost 2 crews (F/L D. Brown, 5 KIA, 2 POW, F/O Bright. 5 KIA, 2 POW.)
We took off at 1916 & set course at 1919, staying at 2500’ until 2137 when we began climbing, to 16000’ by 2233. Our last GEE fix was at 2232 and the next (after bombing OK at 2316) at 0022… so nearly 2 hours of Dead Reckoning with some map reading. (The Germans jammed our GEE receiver so that the screen was filled with “Grass”). The actual winds were about as forecast 160/15 at the target. Our bomb load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie” & 13 J clusters (of incendiaries). Two minutes after bombing our gunners saw a fighter (they think a Do217) at about 400 yards, so we began to “corkscrew”. We continued corkscrewing until 2329, seeing one plane (unidentified) at about 50 yards! and another with a light on (!). We were airborne for 6h 51 min.
[circled 3] [underlined] BOULOGNE. 17.9.44. [/underlined] We took off at 0806 & flew to Syerston, then did a Radius of Action (on track of 260oT) to return to Syerston at 0837 at 6000’, where we did a circuit to port to lose height & get into formation at 3000! We had an uneventual [sic] trip to the target where we bombed at 8100’, dropping 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb. We were airborne for 3h 26 min. 19 Lancs from each of 467 & 463 joined 762 bombers dropping more than 3000 tons of H.E. bombs on German positions around Bologne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison surrendered soon after the raid.
[circled 4] [underlined] BREMERHAVEN 18.9.44. [/underlined] 19 Lancs from each of 467 & 463 were part of a total of [underlined] 206 from 5 Group [/underlined], with no losses from Waddington. The post-war assessors found that this 5-Group attack, with less than 900 tons of bombs, started a [underlined] fire-storm [/underlined] which destroyed 2750 buildings in the main port area, & that [underlined] 30000 [/underlined] people were made homeless & had to live in the open until evacuated several days later.
[page break]
Extracts from a publication giving some details of every wartime operation by 467 & 463 Squadrons (loaned by Sam Nelson) RED = Daylight. BLACK = Night BLUE = We weren’t on it.
[circled 1] 10-9-44 LE HAVRE 21 from 467, 20 from 463 as part of 992 bomber raid on 8 different German strongpoints outside Le Havre. The targets were accurately marked and bombed. No losses.
D. 3h 55m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 12000’ (We lost P.O. engine during bomb-run).
Day 11-9-44. LE HAVRE. 218 bombers from 5 Group attacked German positions still holding out at Le Havre. Two British divisions were now attacking Le Havre and the German garrison surrendered a few hours later. The British wished to capture the port intact as a supply port for the armies, but the German garrison had proved spiteful – they had mined and blown up most of the docks, and it was a number of weeks before the port could be used.
[inserted] Night [/inserted] 11-9-44 DAMSTADT. 226 Lancasters of 5 Group.
Our pilot (Peter Gray-Buchanan) did his “second dickie”. 1 A/C from 463 lost (7 KIA).
[circled 2] 12-9-44 STUTTGART. 20 of 467, 14 of 463, of 204 from 5 Group. (Same night 378 Lancasters on Frankfurt … with success.) Post war, a German expert, Heinz Bardau, wrote that the Northern + Western parts of the city were erased in this concentrated attack, & that a fire-storm resulted … 1171 people killed. Stuttgart’s highest fatality figure for the war. 467 lost 2 crews: F/L D. Brown .. 5 KIA, 2 POW; F/O Bright … 5 KIA, 2 POW.
F 6h 50m 1 x 4000 + 13 J clusters. 15750’
[circled 3] 17-9-44. BOULOGNE. 19 from 467, 19 from 463, of 762 bombers dropping more than 3000 tons of H.E. bombs on German positions around Boulogne in preparation for an attack by Allied troops. The German garrison
[page break]
surrendered soon afterwards.
D. 3h 25 m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 8100’
[circled 4] 18-9-44 BREMERHAVEN. 19 of 467, 19 of 463, of 206 from 5-Group. No losses from Waddington. The post-war assessors found that this 5-Group attack, with less than 900 tons of bombs, started a fire-storm which destroyed 2750 buildings in the main port area, & that 30000 people were made homeless & lived in the open until evacuated several days later.
D 4h 45m. 18 cans (incendiaries – 150 per can). 15250’
[circled 5] [inserted] 19-9-44 [/inserted] RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 Lancasters of 5-Group bombing the twin towns. German reports state that only between 267 and 271 people were killed. 467 lost one Lanc, crashing on returning (4 KIA, 1 POW, 2 evaded, including pilot, F/O Findlay) Master Bomber was W/C Guy Gibson, VC, DSO, DFC (of Dambusters fame) flying a Mosquito … which crashed in flames near the Dutch coast. He and his navigator (S/L J.N. Warwick, DFC) were killed and buried at Steenbergen-en-Kriesland. (Orbited target for 17mm – marking delay). 11000’
D 5h 5m 1 x 2000 + 12 J clusters.
[circled 6] 23-9-44 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (Aqueduct). 19 of 467, 17 of 463, of 136 Lancs. from 5-Group mounting a special attack on the aqueduct at Ladbergen on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. The canal was breached, but losses were heavy 10% of the force were lost. 467 lost F/O G.A. Brown and crew. (5 KIA. 2 POW). (Orbited target losing height for 15 min extra there. Meant to bomb 14000’ but 6400’ due to cloud)
C 5h 25m 14 x 1000
[page break]
[inserted] On the unused back of one of the logsheets are some sketches (rough) of GEE BOX & the kind of blips, scales etc, displayed [/inserted]
(BREMERHAVEN, Con’t).
We took off at 1832, orbited base until 1844, when we set course at 2000’. At 1915 we needed to alter course southwards to regain our track as the winds were from about 085oT rather than 060oT (forecast). Our last GEE fix (before jamming) was on track near turning point A, and we’d climbed to 15000’, from which height we bombed at 2103. Our bomb load was 18 cans of incendiaries. The Lancaster bomb-bay, (quite long & wide, under the floor) had 14 ‘hooks’, so to use 18 cans, 3 of the hooks had a framework added to hold 3 cans side by side. The bomb-aimer could select all 14 hooks to release independently, usually at fairly short time intervals to produce a “stick” of bombs usefully spread. Each can of incendiaries released 150 small bombs about 5 cm diameter & about 40 cm long, each capable of starting a fire.
It was an easy trip for navigation, with GEE only jammed for about 1/2 hr before & after the target. We were airborne for 4h 46 min.
[circled 5] [underlined] RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH. 19.9.44 [/underlined] 19 Lancs from 467, & 16 from 463 were part of a total of 227 from 5 Group bombing the twin-towns. German reports state that only between 267 & 271 people were killed. 467 Sqdn lost one Lanc. crashing on returning (4 KIA but pilot, F/O Findlay, & one other evaded, & the 7th was imprisoned). The Master-Bomber was W/C Guy Gibson VC, DSO, DFC, of Dambuster fame, flying a Mosquito which crashed in flames near the Dutch coast. He and his navigator (S/L J.N. Warwick, DFC) were killed and buried at Steenbergen-en-Kriesland. We took off at 1856 and did a Radius-of-Action (track 260oT) to arrive back at Base at 1913, at 2000’. The winds were about as predicted, we kept close to track & time, and arrived at target at 2139 at 11000’, but were told to [underlined] orbit [/underlined] (to port) due to marking problems. At 2148 we were told to [underlined] orbit again, [/underlined] until, at 2151 we we [sic] told to “attack Green spot fires direct”, which we did at 2155, at 11000’.
[page break]
[photograph] D-Dog at Waddington, 1944
[photograph] [symbol] Peter at pilots window
[photograph] Our gunners
Left: Ken Nicholls, Rear Gunner
Right: Ray Giles, Mid-Upper Gunner
[page break]
RHEYDT/MUNCHEN-GLADBACH (Con’t).
At 2159 1/2 I logged “a/c hit ground – explosion – flame & smoke”
At 2201 1/2 I logged “a/c on ground, bears 000o, 2 min (51o23’, 05o51’E).
At 2211 we saw an unidentified fighter so went into the corkscrew routine, at about 51o30’N 05o00’E.
At 2213 1/2 , while in starbord [sic] turn saw unidentified fighter above us, at about 51o31’N 04o53’E, so continued to corkscrew.
At 2221, I logged “possible a/c hit ground 3 mi on port beam, about 51o32 1/2’N 04o19’E. Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb & 12 “J” clusters. We were airborne for 5h 5 min.
[circled 6] [underlined] DORTMUND-EMS CANAL [/underlined]. 23.9.44. 19 from 467 & 17 from 463 of total 136 Lancs from 5 Group mounted a special attack on the aquaduct at Ladbergen. The canal was breached, but losses were heavy … 10% of the force. 467 Sqdn lost F/O G.A. Brown & crew (5 KIA, 2 POW).
We took off at 1906, did the usual Radius-of-Action to be back at Base at 1931 at 2000’. We crossed the Channel at 4000’ then climbed to 6000’, keeping nicely to track until 2047. GEE was being jammed, and the next 2 fixes showed us 10 & 20 mi North of track … they may have been wrong. We continued by dead-reckoning through cloud climbing to 14000’ and arriving at the target on time at 2148. (We were told by Master-Bomber at 2146 “to bomb 150 ft N.W. of Red Target Indicator (flare)” J. But we were in thick cloud, so [underlined] orbited to port [/underlined] losing height … very dangerous in cloud. At 2155 the Master-Bomber said “cloud base is 8000’, come in and bomb”, but we were still in cloud & had to do [underlined] another orbit [/underlined], losing height to 6300’, so that finally we could see the target at bombed at 2203 from 6400’.
At 2205 I logged “a/c hit ground & exploded 8 mi S.E. of [symbol], (at about 51o59’N 07o53’E.”
At 2228 1/2 I logged “crossed river; a/c hit ground, port beam, 3 mi.”
At 2229 “a/c directly under us hit ground, 52o15’N 06o11’E.”
At 2231 1/2 I logged “a/c hit ground ahead about 10 mi” [brackets]
At 2236 1/2 I logged “a/c (same one?) on port beam, 5 mi [brackets] 52o10’N 06o00’E
[page break]
DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (Con’t).
After leaving the target area, the winds must have been stronger than predicted from the South.
At 2253 I logged “Strong searchlights ahead … Bomb-Aimer thinks its Rotterdam” (about 10 mi North of desired track). So we immediately turned 40o to port, but copped some flak.
At 2303 we saw searchlights over the OVER FLAKKEE area, and at 2304 got our first GEE fix since our last good one at 2047 putting us about 11 mi north of track.
Our bomb-load was 14 x 1000 lb. We were airborne for 5h 25 min.
[underlined] CALAIS. 24.9.44. [/underlined] 8 from 467, & 7 from 463 of a total 188 from 5 Group. 8 were shot down, including 1 from 467 Sqdn, F/O R.A. Jones (3 KIA & 4 POW).
[circled 7] [underlined] KARLSRUHE 26.9.44 [/underlined]. 17 from 467, 14 from 463 of a total 227 from 5 Group. A short German report states “that there was damage throughout the city & lists several important buildings destroyed”. 467 Sqdn lost F/O K. Miller (1 KIA, 6 POW).
We took off at 0055 & did the usual radius-of-action to be back at base at 0113 at 3000’. The winds were much as predicted and we kept close to track & timing, our last reliable GEE fix was at 0337; we arrived at target at 0408 and Master-Bomber told us to “bomb direct on mixed Red & Green T.1’s” But we had 10/10 cloud below us, so we “went round again” & managed to bomb at 0414 from 11500’. Our first reliable GEE fix on the way home was at 0444, only just over 1 hour of jamming.
Our bomb-load was 18 cans of incendiaries, and we were airborne for 6h 50 mins.
[circled 8] [underlined] KAISERLAUTERN 27.9.44 [/underlined] 16 from 467, 15 from 463 of a total of 217 from 5 Group, did the only major raid of the war by Bomber Command. 909 tons of bombs were dropped causing widespread damage to this medium-sized city. A local German report complained that the town was not a military objective, but went on to list a catalogue of small factories destroyed. We took off at 2205,
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24-9-44. CALAIS. 8 of 467, 7 of 463, of 188 from 5-Group. 8 were shot down. 467 lost F/O R. A. Jones & crew (3 KIA, 4 POW)
[circled 7] 26-9-44 KARLSRUHE. 17 of 467, 14 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group. A short German report states that there was damage throughout the city & lists several important buildings destroyed. 467 lost F/O K. Miller & crew (1 KIA, 6 POW).
J 6h 50m 18 cans incendiaries 11500’
[circled 8] 27-9-44 KAISERLAUTERN. 16 of 467, 15 of 463, of 217 from 5-Group on Kaiserlautern, a medium-sized city, in the only major raid on it by Bomber Command during the war. 909 tons of bombs were dropped a widespread damage was caused. A local German report complains that the town was not a military object, but goes on to list a catalogue of small factories destroyed.
H 6h 20m 18 cans incendiaries 4000’
(Sept. Summary: 467 flew 199 sorties; lost 6 crews (23 KIA, 17 POW, 2 Ev.) 4 tours completed.)
[circled 9] 5-10-44 WILHELMSHAVEN 17 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group. 10/10 cloud, marking by H2S. The Wilhelmshaven Diary states that only 12 people died and one bomber was shot down. 467 lost 1 crew (they ditched … hadn’t got to the target … at about 11 am. They were finally rescued about 5pm next day. After short leave, they returned to ‘ops, and were all Killed-in-Action on the Harburg raid.
(This was the only ‘trip’ on which we were allowed to use H2S (they thought enemy fighters could use its transmission to find us). We couldn’t see the markers, so bombed by H2S.)
C. 5h 5m. 18 cans incendiaries. 15000’ (We flew to target in formation escorted by long-range Mustangs
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did a Radius of Action to be back at base at 2228 at 3000’. We stayed at 3000’ until 0010, then climbed to 4500’ and stayed at 4500’ until close to target, when told to bomb from 4000’, which we did (1 1/2 min early), dropping 18 cans of incendiaries. We kept close to track all the way and only lost GEE for an hour. We were airborne for 6h 20 min.
[circled 9] [underlined] WILHELMHAVEN. [/underlined] 17 of 467, 16 of 463, of 227 from 5-Group, a daylight raid flying in formation to the target, escorted by long-range Mustang fighters. The met. forcast [sic] was for considerable cloud at the target, and we were given the most unusual priorities for bombing:-
(i) drop them visually if target is clear;
(ii) use H2S if target is obscured; or (!)
(iii) drop when you see another bomber drop its load.
We took off at 0755, did a Radius of Action to be back at base at 0811 to join formation at 1500’. My GEE set was not working, but being in formation I didn’t have to navigate anyway. Ted Pickard, the new assistant Nav. Officer, criticised my lack of effort to have some practice. At 1010 we began to climb to 15000’ at the target where at 1106 there was 10/10 cloud below. Our Bomb Aimer & I operated the H2S and aimed at the NW corner of the town and dropped our bombs at 1110 and noticed two other Lancasters dropped theirs immediately after. We flew home independently, but other Lancs were visible so we followed the stream. At 1212 I took over flying a plane for the first & only time, keeping straight & level without much trouble for half an hour. We did a bit of map-reading for the last 1/2 hour, and landed at 1306, being airborne for 5h 5 min. Our bomb-load was 18 cans of incendiaries. The Wilhelmshaven Diary states that only 12 people died and that 1 bomber was shot down. 467 lost 1 crew … they ditched before the target at about 11 am & were (finally) rescued about 1700 the next day. After short leave they resumed ops., but were all K.I.A. on the HARBURG raid on 11.11.44. Our bomb-load was 15 cans of incendiaries
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[circled 10] [underlined] BREMEN [/underlined] 17 of 467 Sq., 18 of 463 Sq., of 246 from 5 Group, a night raid on 6.10.44, with bomb-load 18 cans of incendiaries dropped from 17250’. Air borne at 1736 & did Return of Action arriving back at base at 1753 at 5000’. A good navigation trip keeping close to desired track, but winds were lighter than expected, so, despite reducing air-speed twice (10 mph each time) we did a 60o – 120o triangle to lose 7 min. This was the last of 32 major Bomber Command raids on Bremen of the war. This raid, based on the 5 Group marking method, was an outstanding success. 1021 tons of bombs were dropped, of which 868 tons were incendiaries. A detailed report (local) is available which was compiled by an official who stated that: “the night was clear, with 3/4 full moon. A huge fire area was started. Classed as destroyed were 4859 houses, 42 factories, 2 shipyards, the Focke-Wulf works & the Siemens-Schubert electrical works. The transport network was seriously disrupted.” This raid, by no more than 1/4 of Bomber Command (& hardly mentioned in the British War History) had finished Bremen … it was not attacked again in the war.
We landed at 2233 after a trip of 4hr 55 min.
[circled 11] [underlined] FLUSHING [/underlined] (WEST DYKE on WALCHEREN ISLAND in the Scheldt Estuary.) 12 of 467, & 11 of 463 of a total of 121 of 5 Group, a daylight raid on 7.10.44. We each did 2 runs dropping a stick of 7 each run (all 1000 lb HE bombs). The sea-wall was breached and virtually all the island was flooded except the rest of the sea-wall, the central tour (Middleburgh) & the town of Flushing. English newspapers had a photo of the flooded island the next day. We had no losses despite plenty of A.A. [inserted] [two indecipherable words] [/inserted]. On the same day 846 of Bomber Command attacked Kleve-Emerich & Kembs Dams. 617 Sqn. used Tallboys (12000 lb bomb) on Kembs to destroy the floodgates to [underlined] prevent [/underlined] the Germans flooding the valley in the face of the American & French advance.
We were airborn for 3h 10 min.
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[circled 10] 6-10-44 BREMEN. 17 of 467, 18 of 463, of 246 from 5-Group. This was the last of 32 major Bomber Command raids on Bremen during the war. The raid, based on the 5-Group marking method, was an outstanding success. 1021 tons of bombs were dropped of which 868 tons were incendiaries. A detailed local report is available which was compiled by an official who stated that the night was clear with 3/4 full moon … A huge fire area was started. Classed as destroyed were 4859 houses, 42 factories, 2 shipyards, the Focke-Wulfe works and the Siemens Schubert electrical works. The transport network was seriously disrupted. This raid, by no more than 1/4 of Bomber Command (and hardly mentioned in British (War) History, had finished Bremen and the city was not attacked again by Bomber Command.
D 4h 55m 18 cans incendiaries 17250’
[circled 11] 17-10-44 FLUSHING (WALCHEREN ISLAND – WEST DYKE)
12 of 467, 11 of 463, of 121 from 5-Group to successfully breach the sea-wall near Flushing. No losses. (The same day 846 of Bomber Command attacked Kleve Emerich & Kembs Dams … 617 Squadron used ‘Tallboy’ bombs on Kembs. (The idea was to destroy the floodgates to [underlined] prevent [/underlined] the Germans flooding the Rhine valley in the face of French & American advances … this was done OK.)
D 3h 10m 2 sticks of 7 x 1000 6100’ Extra 6 min. orbit for 2nd stick.
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DAY 11-10-44 FLUSHING. 14 of 467, 20 of 463, of 115 from 5-Group attacked gun positions on N. bank of Scheldt Estuary near Flushing. No losses from Waddington.
[deleted] NIGHT [/deleted] [inserted] DAY [/inserted] 14-10-44 DUISBURG Bomber command sent 1013 heavy bombers, and 473 fighters, Americans sent 1251 heavy bombers and 749 fighters … the raid was carried out on a directive from Allied H.Q. to show the Germans the power of Bomber Commands.
NIGHT 14-10-44 BRUNSWICK 19 of 467, 20 of 463 to join 233 of 5 Group. The most effective of numerous raids on Brunswick. Using the 5-Group low-level marking method, Brunswick was finally destroyed. A German report simply lists the number of hectares burnt out. 23000 people were rescued from air-raid shelters and only 200 perished. A special train was sent from Bavaria to help feed the 80000 homeless.
DAY 17-10-44 WESTKAPELLE 2 of 467, 9 of 463 of 47 from 5-Group attacking sea-wall at Westkapelle. Bombing appeared to be accurate but no report is available. No losses.
[circled 12] 19-10-44 NUREMBERG (& DUISBURG) 20 of 467, 20 of 463, of 263 from 5-Group with 7 Mosquitoes in a special low-level-marked attack on Nuremberg. The target was completely cloud-covered and low-level marking could not be used. The raid was effective but not the ‘knockout’ as hoped. (There were 103 bombers from another Group on Stuttgart and other targets, losing only 0.9%). 467 lost F/O E. Rodwell & crew (7 KIA)
D 8h 10m 1 x 2000 + 12 J clusters. 17400’
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On 11-10-44, 16 of 467, 20 of 463 of total 115 (all 5 Group) attacked big gun positions on the bank of [underlined] Scheldt Estuary [/underlined], near Flushing. The big guns prevented a sea attack to open the Estuary for Allied supply shipping (a minefield had to be cleared too), and they menaced the Canadian Army who were attacking south of the Estuary, but couldn’t match these big guns for range. I think the weather was bad, poor visibility maybe no great harm done to the guns.
On 14-10-44 there was a big daylight raid on [underlined] Duisberg [/underlined], carried out as a directive from Allied H.Q. to show the Germans the power of Allied Air Power. Bomber Command sent 1013 heavies & 413 fighters, the Americans sent 1251 heavies & 749 fighters.
That night, (14-10-44) 5 Group sent 19 of 467 Sq & 20 of 463 Sq of a total of 233, to [underlined] Brunswick [/underlined], using the 5 Group low-level marking method, Brunswick was finally destroyed. A German report simply lists the number of hectares burnt out. 23000 people were rescued from air-raid shelters & only 200 perished. Special train sent from Bavaria to help feed the 80000 homeless.
On 17-10-44, 2 of 467, & 9 of 463 Sq. of total of 47 of 5 Group attacked the sea-wall again near Westkapelle on Walcheren Island. Bombing appeared to be accurate but no report was available.
[circled 12] [underlined] NUREMBERG [/underlined]. 5 Group sent 20 of 467 Sq. & 20 of 463 Sq of a total of 263 with 7 Mosquitos to do low-level marking. There was total cloud cover which prevented the low-level marking. The raid was effective but not the knock-out hoped for. The rest of Bomber Command raided Stuttgart & other nearby targets, only losing 0.9%. 467 Sq. lost F/O Rodwell & crew (7 KIA). We took off at 1713, did a Radius of Action coming back to base at 1718 at 2000’. We reduced speed to 150 mph but still had to lose 6 min doing 60oL, 120oR, then got to [symbol] OK but had to orbit as directed.
Bombed 15 min late at 17400’ on Red & Green Target [deleted] [indecipherable word] flares [/deleted]
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Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb HE, and 12 ‘J’ clusters (incendiary). After leaving the target we descended to 6000’, & flew on dead-reckoning, south of Stuttgart & Strasbourg for 2 hours until I got the first GEE fix, nearly 20 miles north of our track, but safely over France. Sid discovered that we had one of the ‘J’ bombs “hung-up”. We went to the jettison area in the Channel & tried to release it manually … did 2 orbits as we kept trying, but without success. So we flew on home to base at 4000’, landing after 8hr 9 min airborne, by far our longest flight so far.
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[inserted] [symbol] Don Coults (Engineer went to Ireland to visit his parents there. [/inserted]
After our 11th Op at Flushing we went on the usual 6-day leave, after only about 4 weeks after we started our tour. The crews were put on a roster for leave, usually each 6 weeks, but you could go earlier if a few crews before you on the list went missing.
A few items from a diary I kept then … 7th Oct: On our return from the Flushing op, we “shot-up” the ‘drome (low level) for W/C. Brill who was going home to Australia. Wrote up log book. Went to a dance with Jackie from our Mess.
8th:- Applied for leave passes. Got paid. Packed.
9th:- Collected subsistence money, & petrol coupons for bike, [symbol] got leave passes. Caught train to London, missed by Ken. Booked in at A.C.F. Club for the night. Ken arrived at 10 pm. We booked in for the rest of the leave. Nice room.
10th. Had breakfast at the Boomerang Club. I looked around & spotted Kirk Beddie from Mendooran. I’ll just go back in time to our first couple of operations to relate a coincidence. When our 8 new crews arrived together, our Nav. Leader, F/Lt Arnold Eastman, was still doing Ops himself, yet was responsible for in-service training of the navigators (especially us new ones). So he delegated the checking of log & charts, and giving advice to some of his senior navigators (Who’d lasted, say 10 ops or more). The first one who helped me twice was called Scotty – I didn’t find out his surname, it was strictly teacher & pupil, especially as he looked elderly … moustache & bald patch … (actually he was about 26). I didn’t see him again at Waddington – we had about 300 air-crew Flight sergeants there.
Anyway, at the Boomerang club, I said good-day to Kirk, we told each other what we’d been doing … he was well into a tour as captain of Sunderland crew – doing Atlantic patrols.
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I remarked that it was a coincidence that the only two fliers [sic] from Mendooran should be on leave at the same place & time. He said ‘-“Oh no, there’s another Mendooranite over here, Vernon Gall, who was the teller at the Bank of NSW there.” I replied that I didn’t know him. Kirk said:- “Well you might not have met him as you were at High School at Mudgee when your parents came to Mendooran, then you worked in Sydney, went into the Army, then the Air Force – you rarely were in Mendooran. Well, what do you know – there he is, I’ll bring him over & introduce you.” Kirk came back with Scotty. We laughed about that coincidence! After the war, when I bought the sports depot in Mudgee & transferred my bank a/c to the Bank of NSW there, Scotty was the teller.
[symbol] At the Club I also met Joe Barber & Eric Gentle who’d been with me at Cootamundra. Ken saw 4 chaps he knew at Lichfield, and I met Rupe Brown the Australian ground-crew corporal who looked after the 3 Lancs & ground crews at our dispersal corner. We went to a play, but didn’t enjoy it - - too serious. Back at A.C.F. played table-tennis with Ken & darts with Sid.
11th: Got some free theatre tickets with Sid & the play was quite enjoyable. Cinema after lunch .. Red Skelton in “Bathing Beauty”, very funny. Game of darts at the Club. Met Jack Freer, who played the saxophone on the ship across the Pacific.
12th. Ken & I got tickets for a play … a good comedy. Darts at the club after supper.
13th Got tickets for a show on Monday. Bought a wireless for £12/3/4.
[symbol] After the war, I found that Ray Meers (Rear Gunner) & Lindsay Francis (Wireless-Operator-Gunner, of Mendooran had both done tours with B.C. about the same time as I.
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14th. Bought more Xmas cards. Had lunch with Peter Dunn from Mudgee at the Club. Saw a newsreel, went to the Windmill theatre, a few beers with Ken, Supper, then table-tennis.
15th. Rupe left to return to Waddington (he’d shared our room
Visited Mme Tussauds waxworks Museum .. very good.
Walked through the Zoo. Saw a newsreel.
16th. At Boomerang Club met Ken Vidler’s crew (I think they were killed a bit later.) Walked the Embankment, saw Cleopatra’s Needle, down Whitehall, got a glimpse of 10 Downing St (cordoned off by Police). Saw the show we’d booked “Happy & Glorious”, easily the best show we’d been to. Had a few drinks with 2 girls who sleep in the railway station at Gloucester Road to be safe from air raids – they’d been doing that for years!
17th: Rain all day. Went cinema that featured 3 films … 4 1/4 hours. Had a steak (!) for 5/- then another film; couldn’t find the ‘steak’ cafe again.
18th. Packed, Sid came back from Exeter & Bristol. Played crib on the train with Sid, all the way to Lincoln. Lunch at 3, collected bike & rode back to camp.
19th. Flew at once for high-level-bombing practice … too much low cloud, so we got a fighter & did some affiliation practice. Then lunch & briefing at 1.30 for a “trip” to Nuremberg, the scene of one of B.C.’s worst losses sometime earlier, when about 500 heavies were caught below high cloud, searchlights lit them up & (from memory) nightfighters, mainly, & flak brought down 49 for a loss rate of 9%. This time it was cloud below us and 467 only lost 1 crew, F/O Rodwell’s … all KIA.
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[circled 13] 23-10-44 FLUSHING. 21 of 467, 20 of 463 of 121 from 5-Group attacked gun positions near Flushing. Visibility was bad and the bombing scattered.
D 3h 20m. 14 x 1000. Briefed to bomb at 6500’ but forced to descend (bad visibility). Bombed at 4000’
[circled 14] BERGEN 28-10-44. 20 of 467, 15 of 463, of 237 from 5-Group, to attack U-boat pens at Bergen. Target was cloud-covered and master-bomber called off the attack after only 47 planes had bombed … from below 5000’ (Mountains within 10 miles of track nearly 4500’!)
D 7h 30m. 12 x 1000 Briefed to bomb at 9000’. Orbited once [inserted] extra 6 min there [/inserted] and lost height using GEE to avoid mountains … bombed at 3800’ Diverted to Marston Moor on return (fog over Waddington). Returned next day.
[inserted] (On our final run there was AA fire from [underlined] above [/underlined] us (mountains) as well as below!) [/inserted]
[circled 15] 30-10-44 WALCHEREN ISLAND. 13 of 467, 13 of 463, of 102 from 5-Group attacked gun positions near Walcheren. The attack was successful and the Allied ground forces commenced their attack on 31st. No losses
Briefed to bomb at 6000’. Cloud over target. Two orbits made – 20 min over target area – bombed at 3500’.
D 3h 20m. 14 x 1000.
OCT ’44 SUMMARY: 467 flew 157 sorties, lost 2 crews (7 KIA, 7 Ev): 5 tours completed, incl. (C.O.) W/C. Brill completing his 2nd tour. 1 crew ditched, rescued & returned.
DAY 1-11-44 HOMBERG. 19 of 467, 17 of 463, of 226 from 5-Group attacked the Meerbeck oil plant at Homberg. Marking was scattered + only 159 planes attempted to bomb. No losses from Waddington.
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After nearly 2 hours on the way home we tried to jettison a J-Cluster (incendiary) which had “hung-up”. We turned back to try to realease [sic] it manually, but failed. So we brought it home & it was safely removed. We landed 1/2 hour late, time airborn was 8hr 9 min. Our bomb-load was 1 x 2000 lb HE & 12 ‘J’ clusters dropped from 17400’.
[circled 13] [underlined] FLUSHING [/underlined] 5 Group sent 121 incl. 21 of 467 Sq & 20 of 463, to attack big gun positions near Flushing on Walcheren Island on 23.10.44. Visibility was bad & the bombing was “scattered”. We took off at 1429, did a Radius of Action & got back to base at 1434 at 2000’. Had a good navigation trip but had to descent from 6500’ to 4000’ to see the target. 1 1/2 min before we bombed our gunners reported a Lanc. hit the sea behind us (I plotted it at 56o33’N, 03o27’E). Quite a few planes were lost and a lot of A.A. damage – we had many holes. Our bomb load was 14 of 1000 lb HE, and 1 of them “hung-up”. We tried to jettison it but couldn’t. We were airborn [sic] for 3h. 19 min.
[circled 14] [underlined] BERGEN (NORWAY) [/underlined] 5-Group sent 237 of which 20 from 467 Sq + 15 from 463, on 28-10-44 to attack U-boat pens at night. We took off at 2221 & did a Radius of Action & got back to base at 2250 at 1500’ which we maintained until 0120 (up till then we were over the N. Sea) when we climbed to 9000’ & increased speed to 180 mph as we were 3 min behind time. When we got to the target we were in cloud. The master bomber told us to come down to 5000’ … we had to orbit carefully as there were mountains East of Bergen over 4000’. I used GEE position lines to descend safely away from mountains to 3800’ when we bombed … about 10 min after the planned time. It was nice to have GEE all the way (no jamming like over Germany) & we kept nicely to track all the way. Our bomb load was 12 x 1000 lb HE. There was plenty of flak around Bergen … some from mountain tops nearly level with us! There was a lot of cloud (& maybe smoke-screen) at the target … master bomber cancelled the raid after only 47 of us bombed
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30.10.44. [symbol] 15 WALCHEREN ISLAND (FLUSHING). 13 from 467 Sqdn & 13 from 463 of 102 total (all 5 Group), daylight raid on big gun emplacements on the Southern edge of Walcheren Island. The Germans also held the Southern banks of the Scheldt Estuary. The Allies had always wanted to capture Antwerp (50 miles inland, the biggest port for unloading tanks & other heavy equipment). While ever these big guns covered both sides of the Estuary, the Allies couldn’t go in to clear the minefields. In fact the Canadian army trying to take the South bank was held up by bad weather (flooded terrain), lack of petrol & ammunition (Patton was partly to blame along with Eisenhower) for so long that eventually, [inserted] our [/inserted] [deleted] Armies [/deleted] [inserted] Marines [/inserted] took Antwerp from the East & finally [inserted] 8 NOV [/inserted] captured Walcheren Island by “sailing” through gaps in the sea-wall from the East! It then took [inserted] nearly [/inserted] another month to clear the mines & winter had set in … too late to use Antwerp for the big offensive they may have been able to mount had they cleared Antwerp 3 months earlier.
We took off at 1340, did a R. of A. & got back to base at 1356 at 1500’. The navigation was easy & we stayed on-track & on-time to the target. We’d been told to bomb at 6000’, but found cloud below, so had to orbit [inserted] twice [/inserted] lose height to 3500’, finally bombing 22 min later than planned. Our bomb load was 14 x 1000 lb HE. We had no losses. The attack was successful, and the Canadian army began their attack along the S. bank the next day.
We dropped 14 x 1000 lb HE; the flight took 3h 20 min. For October, 467 Sq. flew 157 sorties, lost 2 crews (7 KIA, 7 Evaded); 5 tours were completed; 1 crew ditched, were rescued & returned.
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Nov 1st. 226 Lancs of 5 Group (19 from 467 & 17 from 463), in daylight, raided the Meerbeck oil plant near Homberg. Weather was bad, the marking was scattered and only 159 attempted to bomb. No losses from Waddington.
2.11.44 [symbol] 16. DUSSELDORF. 5 Group was part of a big raid (992) by Bomber Command, 15 from 467, 15 from 463. Detailed German reports listed 5000 buildings destroyed, many of them industrial & production works. There were other raids that night too … a total of 1131 sorties. We took off at 1651, 15 min. late. We climbed to 17000’ & increased speed to 170 mph to catch up. At 1920 (at 18000’) we were “coned” by searchlights … very dangerous as ‘flak’ then could be fired visually. We shook them off & bombed at 1925, & I noted that an aircraft was hit about 10 mi ahead, our heading 220o.T. On the way home in the next 26 min, I made 12 more log entries of aircraft crashing to the ground with estimates of their bearing & distance from us.
The RAF had set up 2 more GEE “chains” based in Europe. I tried the RUHR chain, but found the readings “wouldn’t plot”.
Our bomb-load was 11 x 1000 lb & 4 x 500 lb HE.
The trip took 5h 20 min.
467 Sqdn lost F/O Langridge & crew (3 KIA, 5 evaded).
Dusseldorf taken (on Cook’s tour 19.6.45
[two photographs]
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[circled 16] 2-11-44. DUSSELDORF. 15 of 467, 15 of 463 as part of 992 of Bomber Command. Detailed German reports list 5000 buildings destroyed, many of them industrial & production works. (There were other raids that night too … a total of 1131 sorties.) 467 lost F/O L. Langridge & crew (3 KIA, 5 evaded).
C. 5h 20m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 18000’
NIGHT 4-11-44 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 12 of 467, 12 of 463, of 174 from 5-Group attacked the canal near Munster. The banks of the canal were breached again. A report from Albert Speer to Hitler dated 11.11.44 was captured at the end of the war. Speer stated that the raids on the Dortmund-Ems canal, with attacks on the rail system, produced more serious setbacks to the German war industry at this time than any other type of bombing.
[circled 17] 6-11-44. EMS-WESER CANAL. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 235 from 5-Group attacked near the junction of the Ems-Weser and Mittland canals, near Gravenhorst. Markers had considerable difficulty in finding the junction due to ground haze, until a low-flying Mosquito (pilot: F/L L.C. de Vigne, and Aust. navigator, S/L. F. Boyle of 627 Sqdn) found and marked the target with such accuracy that the marker fell into the water and was soon extinguished. Only 31 planes bombed before the Master-Bomber ordered the raid be abandoned. 10 planes lost in the raid, 3 crews from 463 (all KIA). Waddington was fog bound on return & most planes were diverted to Seething. We were perhaps the last to land (in v. poor visibility).
D 5h 25m. 14 x 1000 (but did not bomb). Orbited target once, for extra 10 min. over it.
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4.11.44. 174 Lancs of 5 Group, 12 each from 467 & 463 Sqdns, attacked the Dortmund-Ems Canal, near Munster. The banks of the canal were breached again. A report from Albert Speer to Hitler dated 11.11.44 was captured at the end of the war. Speer stated then:- “that the raids on the Dortmund-Ems Canal, with attacks on the rail system, produced more serious setbacks to the German war industry, at this time, than any other type of bombing.” (In early 1945, the raids on oil targets may have been even more damaging to their war effort.)
6.11.44 [symbol] 17. EMS-WESER CANAL. 235 of 5 Group, 19 from 467, 16 from 463 attacked the Ems-Weser junction with the Mittland Canal, near Gravenhorst. The markers had considerable difficulty finding the junction due to ground haze, until a low-flying Mosquito (pilot: F/Lt L.C. de Vigne, & Australian navigator, S/Ldr F. Boyle of 627 Sqdn) found & marked the target with such accuracy that the marker landed in the canal & was soon extinguished. Only 31 planes bombed before the Master-Bomber abandoned the raid. 10 planes were lost, 3 of them from 463 Sqdn (all KIA).
We were supposed to take off at 1633 but actually took off 28 min late, so once we climbed to 11000’ we boosted our I.A.S. to 180 mph & were on-time by 1915. I logged a Lanc. crashing at 1923 1/2; we had to orbit twice [inserted] (12 min) [/inserted], at the target (due to the marking problem) … very dangerous. Logged 4 more planes crashing [deleted] at [/deleted] in the target area, & another at 1943, after we’d left the target without bombing. I couldn’t get any “joy” on either of the 2 new GEE chains. The trip took 5h. 25 min. We brought back our 14 x 1000 lb H.E. bombs.
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The weather deteriorated on the way back … the bumps were so bad that I had to hold all my navigation gear down to stop them hitting the roof, & brace my knees under the nav. table to avoid joining them there. The visibility at Waddington was bad due to fog, and most of our planes were diverted to Strubby; however, Peter did an abbreviated circuit (so he could actually keep the runway in sight) & then came in as if in a Tiger Moth, almost clipping the caravan stationed near the “funnel” (where they might use a Verey to send-you-round-again), but he landed safely … and then they closed the airfield.
Besides getting the 2 new GEE chains (RHEIMS & RHUR) to help with navigation over Germany, we now had LORAN fitted. It was similar in some ways to GEE, but depened [sic] on the radio signals being reflected from the ionosphere (only at night). The stations were widely separated … I think England, Norway, Italy … and each single reading had to be made & timed, then another [deleted] one [/deleted] tuned-in, read & timed … probably 2 min or more later, & the running -fix method used. On 9.11.44 we did at [sic] Cross-Country, using Loran, over England, ending with some high-level bombing practice … 3 1/4 hrs trip. The trailing aerial had to be used to receive Loran signals.
11.11.44 [symbol] 18. HARBURG. A 5-Group raid of 237 planes, + 8 marker Mosquitos, 19 from 467, 14 from 463 … a night raid on the Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery, near Hamburg. This refinery had been raided several times by American daylight bombers. We took off at 1627, did a R. of A. to be back a [sic] base at 1634 at 3000’.
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(HARBURG)
We climbed to 15000’ & later to 16000’ to get out of cloud, & kept nicely to track all the way to the target, getting a bit behind time all the way (no worries we were over the sea nearly all the way). We bombed 8 min late from 16000’. Our WOP (Eric) told us the Master Bomber said to bomb the centre of the Red Target Indicators (there were 4), but to ignore outside Indicators which were dummies (set up by the Germans). Half an hour before the target I wanted to use LORAN, but Eric (our WOP) said he’d been ordered not to use the trailing aerial. I relied on Dead-Reckoning from the target and got my first GEE fix 50 min later about 15 mi. N. of track.
Our bomb-load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie”, 6 x 1000 lb, & 6 x 500 lb H.E. We could still see the plant burning from 100 mi away on our way back. Our squadron lost F/O Fedderson’s crew (7 KIA) & F/O Eyre’s crew (6 KIA, 1 POW) … one of these killed was Geoff (“Bushie”) Goodfellow, their navigator, one of my best friends … we played a lot of cards together & we bunked opposite each other in our room. He came from Tooraweenah (father ran the “Mountain View” hotel there), & he said I was the only person he’d met that had even heard of the place, let alone been there, which I had.
F/L Kynoch’s plane was hit & badly damaged, but he crash-landed it at Manston (an emergency ‘drome on the coast) & he & the crew survived.
The flight lasted 5h. 35 min.
On 13.11.44 we did our “20 SORTIE CHECK”, on a flight of 55 min. We’d only done 18 ops plus the 2 BULLSEYES at Lichfield & Swinderby.
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[circled 18] 11-11-44 HARBURG. 19 of 467, 14 of 463, of 237 from 5-Group, plus 8 Marker Mosquitos attacked the Rhenania-Ossag oil refinery at Harburg (near Hamburg). This had been attacked several times by American (day) bombers. Brunwig’s ‘History of Hamburg & Harburg’ (air-raids), gives the raid a brief mention. (We could still see the plant burning 100 miles away on our way home.)
467 lost F/O. M. Fedderson & crew (7 POW), and F/O. T. Eyre & crew [inserted] (G Goodfellow was the Nav) [/inserted] (6 KIA, 1 POW). F/L Kynoch’s plane was hit and badly damaged – he crash-landed at Manston (an emergency ‘drome on the coast).
D 5h 35m. 1 x 4000 + 6 x 1000 + 6 x 500 16000’
[circled 19] 16-11-44 DUREN. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, as part of 1188 from Bomber Command, attacked Duren, Julich & Heinsburg in support of the American 1st & 9th armies which were about to advance on this area. Raids were made by 1239 American heavy bombers on targets in the same area. (this was the biggest raid we took part in … there were planes to the horizon all the way, heaps of fighter escorts.) 9400 tons of bombs dropped. The result was disappointing. Heavy rain and wet ground prevented much of the tank assault and slowed the supplies of artillery ammunition and the armies’ advance was slow and costly. (For our part, the centre of Duren was reduced to rubble.) G/C. Bonham-Carter, O/C of Waddington led our Group, as ‘second dickie’ to the crew who had bombed the wrong target on a daylight raid on Flushing (23-10-44?), killing some Canadians.
D 5h 25m. 12 x 1000. 10500’
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16.11.44 [symbol] 19. DUREN (daylight). 15 planes from 467, & 15 from 463, were part of a big effort by Bomber Command (1188 planes) attacking Duren, Julich & Heinsburg in support of the 1st & 9th American Armies which were about to advance in this area. Raids were made on other targets in this area by 1239 American heavy bombers. This was by far the biggest raid we took part in … there were planes to the horizon all the way with heaps of fighter escort … [deleted] B [/deleted] 9400 tons of bombs were dropped, but the result was disappointing. Heavy rain & boggy ground prevented most of the tank attack and slowed supplies of artillery ammunition with the result that the advance was slow & costly. For our part, the centre of Duren was reduced to rubble – it may have needed bulldozers to clear a path through it! The base commander at Waddington, Gp/Capt Bonham-Carter, led 5 Group as ‘second dickie’ to one of our crews who had bombed the wrong “target” (a smoke-generator) on an earlier daylight raid near Flushing on 23.10.44, killing some Canadian army men.
The navigation was easy. Our bomb-load was 12 x 1000 lb H.E. dropped from 10500’. Flight time: 5h 25 min.
[two photographs]
Snaps of Duren taken on the “Cook’s Tour” I did on 19.6.45.
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Extracts from Diary –
18.11.44 navigators briefing at 1.30 for a v. long trip. Not enough time for preparation. Our crew just got out to the “kite” when the trip was “scrubbed” …joy! After tea we went down to the local Horse & Jockey (Hotel). Saw a bloke about his car, & bought it for £3 … a little Morris 8 HP Sedan
19.11.44 To navigation section before lunch for another briefing, to the same place as yesterday, more time for preparation & less to do. No lunch … sandwiches at briefing … then it was scrubbed again. Collected car.
20.11.44. Went to briefing for another daylight raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal, but it was scrubbed. Went to town with Ken Nichols & Ken (of ground crew) … wanted to go to the theatre, but all seats were sold, so we went to the cinema & saw “White Cliffs of Dover.”
21.11.44. Briefed again for the same canal raid as yesterday, chart was already done. [symbol] It was scrubbed at the 11th hour & we missed lunch … again had sandwiches in the briefing room.
21.11.44 [symbol] 20 DORMUND-EMS CANAL
We took off at 1726, did a R. of A. & got back to base at 1754 at 2000’. The winds were light & fairly consistently Westerly at first, then N.W. It was easy to keep on track & close on-time. At 2020 I logged “Lanc, crashed & blew-up 15 mi. astern”. We’d been at 10250’ until 2058 when WOP told us to descent to 3-4000’ … we did so, fast, and bombed at 2103. At 2108 I logged: “Aircraft crashed below us 3 mi. past other target.” At 2232 we jettisoned a hang-up bomb in the sea. Landed at base at 2337, time airborne 6h 11 min. Our bomb-load was 13 x 1000 lb H.E.
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21.11.44. [symbol] 20. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL, near LADBERGEN.
15 from 467, 15 from 463 bombed Dortmund-Ems & Mittland Canals; as part of Bomber Command maximum effort of 1345 heavy bombers attacking 6 targets in this general area.
No losses for 5-Group.
We took off at 1726, did a R. of A. getting back to base at 1754 at 2000’. I had a good navigation trip, GEE from England lasted until 2020, then the RUHR chain worked to the target area. I logged a Lanc. blowing-up 15 mi astern at 2020. We were briefed to bomb at 10500’ but, 5 min before out T.O.T our W.O.P. (Eric) got word that we descend to 3 – 4000’ to get below cloud. We descended quickly & bombed 5 min later at 4500’; then began climbing again into the clouds. Tried Loran for fixing without success. We had a bomb hang-up, but jettisonned [sic] it in the sea at 2222.
Our bomb load was 13 x 1000 lb H.E.
The trip took 6h 10 min.
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This is an enlargement of the smaller print of the area bombed repeatedly … DORTMUND EMS CANAL.
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[photograph] Open bomb-bay of a Lanc. loaded with 1000 lb H.E. bombs. Bomb-aimer could select each one to drop separately at predetermined intervals (usually close together as a “stick”.)
[photograph] Our Mid-upper gunner Ray Giles, near his turret – 2 Browning .303 machine guns
[photograph] Lanc’s in formation on a daylight raid. Nearest is PO-J
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On a low-level “Cooks Tour” from Wigsley on 19th June, 1945 (after war’s end in Europe), I took some photos with the old box Kodak.
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The Dortmund Ems canal where it was built above a stream, shown clearly in the left photo. The embankments here were bombed repeatedly, 8 times I think. We did 3 of Ops there and one at the nearby Ems-Weser canal.
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Broken bridges over the Rhine at Duisberg – we didn’t bomb there, but 5 Group did.
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The Krupps works at Essen, which was regularly bombed by the RAF during most of the war. Including some 1000 – bomber raids.
[photograph] Wrecked bridges at Cologne, another regular RAF target; somehow the Cathedral survived.
[photograph] The railway marshalling yards at Hamm received plenty of “attention”
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Dusseldorf was regularly bombed … we did our 16th Op. there
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[circled 20] 21-11-44. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL, (near LADBERGEN). 15 of 467, 15 of 463 as part of 1345 Bomber Command heavies attacked 6 targets in this general area. 5-Group targets were the Mitteland and Dortmund-Ems canals … without loss.
D 6h 10m. 13 x 1000. Briefed to bomb at 10250’, got 5 min warning by radio to descend to cloud base … bombed at 4500’.
[circled 21] 23-11-44. TRONDHEIM. 16 of 467, 4 of 463 of 171 from 5-Group, incl. 7 Mosquito Markers, to attack U-boat pens at Trondheim. The target was covered b y a smokescreen and could not be marked. The Master Bomber ordered the raid abandoned. No losses. (The weather was bad; big wind changes. Many jettisoned bombs in North Sea or diverted to North Scotland due to fuel shortage … we were the only one to return to Waddington with bombs still aboard.)
D 10h 55m. 9 x 1000 (brought home).
26-11-44 MUNICH (Our rear gunner, K. Nickols, went on this trip as ‘spare bod’.) 270 Lancs from 5-Group, 467 lost F/O Findlay & crew (crashed – out of fuel … their Nav. vomited and blocked his oxygen supply, went unconscious and they got lost in cloud. But all survived the crash and were flown home by the Americans on 1.12.44.
NOVEMBER SUMMARY 467 did 148 sorties, lost 4 crews (9 KIA, 8 POW, 11 Ev) 8 tours expired. 2 were badly wounded.
NIGHT 4-12-44 HIELBRONN. 282 from 5-Group (Main force attacked Karlsruhe). 467 lost F/O J. Plumridge & crew (6 KIA. 1 POW). F/L Bill Kynock & crew attacked by fighter, rear gunner killed (F/S R. Steele), and plane badly damaged (we think it was ‘D’.), crash landed at Manston (emergency airfield).
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23.11.44 [symbol] 21. TRONDHEIM (Norway). 5-Group sent 171 planes (including 7 Mosquito markers) to attack the U-boat facilities there. This was a very long trip mostly over the North Sea at low-level (1000’) in bad weather, rain & severe wind-changes. Tankers topped us up with petrol at the end of the runway before we took off at 1609, 12 min late. GEE ran out at 1848 … over 2 hours before we’d reach the target. We were unable to identify where we crossed the coast, so we continued on northwards and at 2050 saw the target lit up by flares to our left. A wind velocity to use for bombing was received by radio, and at 2055 we saw yellow Target Indicators about 10 mi to Port. We turned to a Westerly course. At 2102 we were told to abandon the raid as a smoke-screen obscured the target. We continued by Dead Reckoning & B.A. (Sid) identified a pin-point at 2112. We descended from 9000’ to 1000’, and at about 2130 discovered that the earlier pin-point was wrong, giving a new one near Smolen Island. At 2248 I got my first GEE fix (after 1 1/2 hr since the target) … about 50 mi NW of where we thought we’d be … big wind change. Pilot (Peter) & I decided to aim to land at LEUCHARS (Nth Scotland) as we had a head-wind. Then, at 0024 I got a good fix & found the wind had eased & changed to NE, and by 2130 was from the NW & getting faster. Pilot & Engineer consulted with me & we decided to try for Waddington, cutting our speed back from 190 to 170 mph. The wind held about NW & increased to about 45 mph, so we reached base OK & landed at 0302, with only about 80 gallons left. Most of our planes jettisonned [sic] bombs in the North Sea, or landed at Leuchars. We were the sole plane to bring our bombs home to Waddington. Trip-time 10h 53 min.
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26.11.44. 5-Group sent 270 heavies to MUNICH. Our rear-gunner, Ken Nicholls went as a “spare-bod” in place of a sick crewman. One of the 467 crews crashed, out of fuel. Their navigator had vomited and blocked his oxygen supply, he went unconscious, and they were lost in cloud. They all survived the crash-landing and were flown back by the Americans on 1.12.44.
November summary for 467 Sqdn: 148 sorties, 4 crews lost (9 KIA, 8 POW, 11 Evaded); 8 tours expired. 2 men were badly wounded.
4.12.44 (night). HEILBRONN was attacked by 282 from 5 Group, while the main force of Bomber Command attacked Karlsruhe. 467 Sqdn lost F/O Plumridge & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW). F/Lt Bill Kynoch’s plane was attacked by a fighter, his rear-gunner killed (F/Sgt R. Steele) & the plane badly damaged … we think it was our favourite “D”. They crash landed at the emergency ‘drome, Manston, & we heard that “D” was a write-off.
6.12.44. GIESSEN (night) attacked by 255 of 5-Group (19 from each of 467 & 463 sqdns) while the rest of Bomber Command bombed Osnabruck & Leuna (oil plant).
8.12.44 URFT DAM [symbol] 1. 205 of 5-Group (10 of 467, 15 of 463). 9/10 cloud over target, no result observed. No loss.
10.12.44 URFT DAM [symbol] 2. 5-Group (15 [inserted] each [/inserted] of 467 & 463). All were recalled before the target due to bad weather & visibility.
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More extracts from Diary.
23.11.44. No operations on. Went to Lincoln with Peter & Don in my car to see about getting Peter’s car fixed. Went to the pictures.
Feeling very crook … terrible cough.
24.11.44. Went on sick parade. The Dr. reckoned I was OK for flying … I didn’t. had heard there was to be a long trip that night & saw the Dr. again .. he put me into Sick Quarters & I slept!!! about 20 hours a day. Our crew wasn’t listed for the operation that night, but our rear-gunner, Ken Nichols, opted to go with Bill Kynock’s crew … but the trip was scrubbed anyway. Ken visited me.
25.11.44. Still in sick-quarters. No ops. Ken, Don & Rupe came to see me, then they went to an ENSA concert on the base.
26.11.44. Out of sick-quarters. Ken went with Kynoch’s crew to MUNICH in crook weather. It was OK at the target, quiet & a good ‘prang’. Went over to [deleted] 3 Sqdn [/deleted] SICK QUARTERS to see Ted Pickerd who’d been our Navigation analysis ‘joker’ for some months. Played pontoon, won 10/- Kynoch’s crew were diverted to Langham.
27.11.44. Went to Swinderby & got 3 gal of petrol in the car. Ken & Kynocks crew came back from Langham.
28.11.44. No ops. Made up a list of comments on ops that had to be done … big job. Flew to Thornaby [deleted] to bring [/deleted] & back in ‘D’ [deleted] back [/deleted] with a ferry crew for their plane.
Navigators party on tonight … too bad Ted Pickerd is still in sickquarters. Des Sands (o i/c A flight … Sqn Ldr, DFM on 2nd or 3rd tour) Lionel Hart & I took others in cars, the rest used bikes. Wionderful show. Bags of beer & fun.
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NIGHT 6-12-44 GIESSEN 19 of 467, 19 of 463, of 255 from 5-Group. (Main force attacked Osnabruck & Leuna).
DAY 8-12-44. URFT DAM [symbol] 1. 10 of 467, 15 of 463 of 205 from 5-Group. 9/10 cloud over target and no result observed. No loss.
DAY 10-12-44 URFT DAM [symbol] 2. 15 of 467, 15 of 463 … 5-Group. All recalled before reaching target due to bad weather and visibility.
[circled 22] 11-12-44 URFT DAM [symbol] 3. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, of 233 from 5-Group, with Mosquito Markers. Hits observed but no breach seen. (We brought our bombs home, despite doing an orbit … (hoping for gap in clouds) … against orders … extra 7 min. in target area. Very accurate radar-directed flak; we lost P.O. motor.).
F 6h 5m. 14 x 1000 (brought home) (9750’)
[circled 23] 17-12-44 MUNICH. 22 of 467, 19 of 463 of 280 from 5-Group, with 8 Mosquito Markers. (Main force attacked Duisburg, Ulm and Munster … a total of 1310 heavies, 1.1% loss.) Reconnaissance showed severe damage. 467 lost F/O T. Evans & crew (all 7 Ev) … they collided after bombing with an engine on fire.
M 9h 45m 1 x 4000 + 9 cans + 1 MONROE 11750’
[circled 24] 18-12-44 GDYNIA. 19 of 467, 15 of 463 of 236 from 5-Group. 2 crews from each flight attacked 2 pocket Battleships anchored near the port (which was the main target) … we hit “Lutzow” with 3 of our bombs (& 1 v. close in water) nicely near funnel area. Considerable damage to port area.
M 9h 45m. 10 x 1000 S.A.P.
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29.11.44. No ops. Went into Lincoln to try to register car … no joy; had to go to Sleaford, but no time. Tore around garages [inserted] for [/inserted] a battery & brake adjusters, but no joy. Finished off the navigation comments from yesterday. Decided to sell my autocycle & got a buyer. Played pontoon, won 3/-.
30.11.44. No ops. Went to Sleaford, got car registered & oil changed. Got coupons for petrol to go on leave, packed up, got leave pass, laundry & shoes. Went into Lincoln with Ken & got petrol & a new battery. Saw about trains for Ray & Eric for tomorrow.
1.12.44. Went out to our dispersal where mechanics helped get new battery in & working after a lot of trouble … bludged a couple of gallons of petrol from Ken (ground crew). Left at 10.10, had lunch at Nottingham & then went on to Birmingham, getting to where Don was staying at 3.30. had tea there, played solo until 1.30 am, went down to “Old Farm” at [inserted] ? Wesley [/inserted] Westly Castle for the night.
2.12.44. Duck eggs for breakfast! Lunch at Police Station (don had been a policeman in Birmingham before he enlisted for air crew.) Then tea at Mrs Benlays (friend of Don). Met Ken & Mrs Smith & Margaret from next door. Played solo. Went to Police Club for drinks. More solo ‘till 2 am. Slept next door at Smiths.
3.12.44. Breakfasts on both at Smiths & Benlays. Called at jewellers for Ken’s watch, but no luck. Set off for Swindon. Lunch at Swan’s Nest in Stratford. Looked over Shakespeare’s birthplace, got postcards & saw Home Guard parade. Went on to “Stow-in-the-Wold” & stayed the night in a nice little pub. Played darts, crib & drank beer.
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[photograph] Engineer Don Coutts & Mid Upper Gunner Ray Giles, Birmingham
[photograph] Rear Gunner, Ken Nichols, & Ray Giles at Benlay’s place at Birmingham where we stayed on leave 1/2 Dec ’44.
[photograph] Ray Giles, at Benlays’ place, Birmingham
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More from the Diary.
4.12.44. Rachel Swindon for dinner. Found our way out to Clyffe-Pyhard & saw Bunty Duff & got back just before dark. Had tea at fish & chip shop & went to pictures – saw Jon Hall & Maria Montez in ‘Cobra Woman’.
5.12.44 After breakfast towed an Engineers car to get it started. Bought side-lamp for car. Reached Slough via Reading for lunch & called [deleted] on [/deleted] at Margaret Vyner’s place … she was in London meeting Hugh Marlowe, home from France on 72-hours leave. Saw Mrs Vyner & Hugo, had afternoon tea & went to Slough, booked in at Salthill Hotel & had tea. At pub, picked up 2 girls & took them home but got lost on the way back. Turned in at 12.30.
6.12.44. Looked around a lot of shops in Slough & finally got some bulbs for dash-lights. Met an old Aussie-Scot, Macintosh for yarn & drinks; he showed us his home at 26 Windsor Rd. Slough. Drove to Windsor & looked over Eton College on Founders Day, … going for 504 years. Saw Windsor Castle & had tea there. Played cards with Ken, before & after tea.
7.12.44. After breakfast caught train to London & booked in at A.C.F. Club. Met Scottie Gall & Kirk Beddie again; had steak (!) & mushrooms at Athens Cafe; went to pictures & saw “Casanova Brown”. More steak with onions then a variety show at the Empire in Finsbury Park. Went back tp pub at Gloucester Rd & saw girls we knew from last leave in London. Also ran into Syd & Peter.
8.12.44. Arranged to meet Peter on the way to Cambridge. Got car at Slough & was 1 hr late in meeting Peter. Had lunch at Cambridge Arms. Saw a good picture “Love Story”. Met a navigator I knew at Brighton … Cameron, who’d done 35 ops in Mosquitos. More steak & onions for supper.
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9.12.44. Looked at some of Cambridge University … not much to see. Had lunch at roadside pub and got to Lincoln about 4.30. collected photos, had drinks at the Saracens head & went to a show at the Royal Theatre. Peter’s car had a flat tyre. Got battle-dress from cleaners & put overcoat in. A good leave
10.12.44. Welcomed back to nav. section. No ‘war’ today. had an interview for commission with Group-Captain Bonham-Carter. W/Cdr Bill Brill had told us not to apply for a commission until we’d done about 20 “trips”. But after he left, in October, the new C.O. W/Cdr J.K. Douglas invited anyone interested in a commission to apply, regardless of the number of ops. I did, but didn’t impress him with my answers (especially when I said “probably not” to his question “would I be more use to the air force with a commission?”. He didn’t recommend me. But Bonham-Carter said something like this: “I have 2 W’ Cdrs here, at 467 & 463; one C.O. recommends virtually all applicants after they’ve done 20 trips; the other (Douglas) likes to interview them at depth & knocks a few back. I have to make the final decision. You seem to be doing well. I’ll look at you again next month.” (He saw me in Mid-January with only one Op (Brux) to go, and recommended me without any further questioning.)
11.12.44. Took laundry & boots down but didn’t have time to check them in … there’s “war” on. Went to briefing room & sorted out Gee charts. The briefing was hurried; the plane we got, (F), was slow, climbed poorly, and we were late getting to the target.
(con’t on next page)
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11.12.44 [symbol] 22. URFT DAM No 3. Daylight raid by 233 from 5-Group (15 each from 467 & 463 Sqdns), with Mosquitos doing the marking. Hits were observed but no breach seen. We brought our bombs back despite doing an orbit (against orders) hoping for a gap in the clouds … we spent 7 minutes extra over the target, and experienced very accurate radar-directed flak just after leaving. We lost our Port-Outer motor.
We took off at 1205, did a R. of A. returning to base at 1219, at 6000’. We climbed to 12000’ & “cruised” at 170 mph, but gradually got behind time (5 min late at 1350) but only 3 min. late at the target. This plane, F, would not go any faster with our bomb-load of 14 x 1000 lb. H.E. Pilot feathered our Port Outer motor at 1554 (maybe some flak damage). Jettisonned [sic] 2 bombs at 1645 which took extra time … ending up 47 min. late home. Flight time 6h 5 min.
17.12.44 [symbol] 23. Night-raid on MUNICH by 280 from 5-Group, (22 from 467, 19 from 463), with 8 Mosquito markers. The rest of Bomber Command attacked Duisberg, Ulm & Munster, a total of 1310 ‘heavies’, for a 1.1% loss rate. Reconnaissance showed severe damage. 467 lost F/O T. Evans & crew (all 7 Evaded) … they collided after bombing with an engine on fire; they baled out before the plane crashed.
We took off at 1636, 3 min late, and immediately began climbing on course, south for Reading, then into France near Le Havre, mostly at 4000’, very bumpy, tried 5000’ to get out of cloud, then down to 3000’ & back to 4000’. As we neared the SW corner of Switzerland we climbed to 15000’ & skirted its southern border, seeing lights on in some villages.
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We had a good navigation trip to the target, keeping close to track & timing OK. We used GEE until 2026, then some LORAN fixes (some inaccurate) but sighted target at 2152, descended to 12000’ to bomb at 2211.
At 2214 I logged “air-to-air firing up – qr. to beam”
At 2215 1/2 “ “ “aircraft went in 40 mi ahead”.
We began descending in steps to 5500’ & continued to use LORAN until 2350 when GEE came good.
I got very airsick about 2250 (first time since Cootamundra!), and at about 2310 saw flak coming up from Mulhouse, so we turned to Port to avoid it. At 0110, the GEE box went unserviceable (U/S), and we read PUNDITS back to base where we landed at 0220. Flight time was 9h 45 min, bomb load was 1 x 4000 lb “cookie” & 9 cans of incendiaries & 1 Monroe.
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18.11.44. [symbol] 24. GYDNIA (“A” Target: Pocket Battleship LUTZOW).
A 5-Group raid, 236 planes, 19 of 467 & 15 of 463 Sqdn, on the Naval base. Considerable damage to the port area was reported. Two crews from each flight of both squadrons were to arrive at their targets … two pocket battleships, 9 min before the rest of the Group were to start bombing; the markers & the accompanying flare-force (they dropped lots of long-burning flares to light up the area for the Markers) arrived then too. We were supposed to see the battleships in the light of the flares & do our bombing between 2151 & 2156. Our bomb-load was 10 x 1000 S.A.P (Semi-Armour Piercing) bombs … unlikely to be really damaging, although the decks of the pocket-battleships were much thinner than on “real” battleships (although they had 16” guns, the same.)
We took off at 1712, already 10 min later than planned, & flew at about 3 – 4000’ at 180 mph until 2000, when we climbed to 11500’. GEE had given out at 1850, but LORAN was OK & I got good signals at 1920, but we hadn’t been given Loran charts that covered beyond 56oN. So it was dead-reckoning & the hope of a pin-point later. Then, at 2055 1/2, I got a Loran fix, on track, just below the 56oN latitude, which could be plotted. I got another dubious fix at 2105 1/2, about 5 mi Sth of track, then another good one at 2122 1/2, on track again. I got another good Loran fix at 2133 which allowed me to estimate the wind velocity at 190/23. We turned on dead-reckoning 3 min late at point E, & arrived at point F, on dead-reckoning 2 min late, and steered visually for our target. At 2150, Syd, our Bomb-Aimer, reported a smoke screen starting over the battleships area. The flares went down at 2150 1/2, but didn’t penetrate the smokescreen. At 2153 our Pilot, Peter, decided to “go-round” again. As we turned Syd saw the Lutzow, [indecipherable word] behind us now. We flew North East
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for a while, did a timed run, using his stop-watch, to be back over our target at 2158. But again, the smoke-screen obscured our target. We turned Northwards & repeated the timed run. All this time we experienced a lot of radar-predicted flak, close enough to keep rocking our plane. While we were doing this 3rd orbit, Peter said: “If we can’t bomb this time, we’ll go round again and lose height to bomb at low-level.” Syd said: “Geez, that would be bloody dangerous.” At 2206, the target was clear & we bombed accurately. On the photograph which we saw back at base the next day, 3 of our bombs hit the deck amidships, one very close to the funnel, and a 4th bomb right alongside in the water. We’d actually bombed from 11750’ at 150 mph (I.A.S.), heading 260oT. At 2208 I logged: “Lanc. crashed Stb. Bow, 20 mi.” We crossed the coast at 2216 and got a Loran fix at 2222 1/2, only 3 mi. S. of track. The rest of the trip home was uneventful, we kept close to track and landed at 0303, flight-time 9h 51 min.
[drawing of area map]
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I did some research about the Lutzow & Admiral von Sheer. They were both damaged and the Lutzow was towed to Swinemunde, the Admiral von Sheer to Keil, where, on the night of 9/10 April ’45, a raid using 591 planes, sank the von Sheer, and so severely damaged the light cruised Emden & the heavy cruiser Hippo, that their crews then scuttled them … they were unable to put to sea. Then on the night of 16/17 April, 617 Squadron attacked Swinemunde, & effectively disposed of Germany’s last pocket battleship, Lutzow, although I read that its crew also finally scuttled it, as it was beyond repair
[symbol] [underlined] 25 [/underlined]. 27-12-44. 5-Group sent 200 planes (15 of 467 & 12 of 463) to bomb [underlined] RHEYT [/underlined] (our [symbol] 25 trip), the railway yards there, part of Munchen-Gladbach, where we’d done our 5th trip. We took off at 1204, did a R. of A. to be back at base at 1220 at 6000’. We were supposed to fly in formation but there was a lot of confusion … we finally flew individually until 1309 when we joined the formation. Near the target, the other planes began turning towards the target long before reaching the GEE lattice line we were told to follow. We did as we’d been told, and bombed at 1505 1/2 from 17200’. The trip home was uneventful, the navigation easy, as we had GEE all the way, using the RHUR chain over Germany. We had some flak going close just after the target at 1512 1/2. We landed at 1705, flight-time was 5h., bomb-load was 14 x 1000 lb. H.E.
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[deleted] [circled [indecipherable number]] [/deleted] NIGHT 21-12-44. POLITZ. 17 of 467, 17 of 463, of 207 from 5-Group attacked synthetic oil plant. 3 Lancs lost over Europe, but 5 crashed in England on return … 90% of airfields were fogbound … most were diverted to Scotland, but some were so short on fuel they had to try to land in fog. (F.L. Kynoch crashed ‘M’ at Waddington, but no injuries.)
[circled 25] 27-12-44 RHEYDT. 15 of 467, 12 of 463, of 200 from 5-Group, attacked railway yards at Rheydt. No loss
C 5h 0m. 14 x 1000. 17200’
DAY 28-12-44 MOSS SHIPPING (OSLO FIORD). 4 of 467, 6 of 463 of 67 from 5-Group attacked a large naval unit off Oslo Fiord. No direct hits claimed.
30-12-44 HOUFFALIZE. 12 of 467, 12 of 463 of 166 from 5-Group attacked the German supply bottleneck at Houffalize. Cloud obscured target. (Main force of 500 heavies attacked Kalh-Nord railway yards near Cologne … results obscured by cloud.)
DEC ’44 SUMMARY. December ended in a long spell of cold, fog & snow which restricted operations and serviceability. 467 flew 172 sorties, losing 2 crews + 1 gunner. (7 KIA, 1 POW, 7 Ev) 8 crews finished tours. 1 crew crashlanded [sic] and were rescued.
(The 2 Lanc. Squadrons (467 & 463) had learnt that the 5-Group method of marking was the most cost-effective way of striking heavy flows to the enemy. From 17.8.44 (when Bomber Command returned to attacks on Germany proper, after the many short trips for 2nd Front, a total of 72881 sorties from which 696 aircraft were lost (… about 1%). In this period of 137 days [deleted] 467 & 463 [/deleted] [inserted] Bomber Command [/inserted] made 530 sorties per day (av.) & lost 5.1 planes per day (av.) … 265708 tons of bombs were dropped.
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[circled 26] 1-1-45. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL 18 of 467, 5 of 463 of 102 from 5-Group, breached the canal near Ladbergen, (the Germans had repaired the canal again.) They were using an enormous number of slave labourers (‘Todt’ workers … 40000 we heard) to repair these vital links in their transport system. (And so when the barges began to run again they ‘knew’ the Lancs would soon come, and they were ready with AA & fighters … it was a hot spot.)
(On this trip F/O Merv Bache got an immediate DSO … their B/A. was Sam Nelson (WaggaWagga) … onfire, [sic] crashed just inside Allied lines … they’d all baled out in time. F/S Thompson of 9 Sqdn. got a posthumous VC also.)
B 6h 40m. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500. 10900’
Landed at STRUBBY on return, due to fog.
NIGHT 1.1.45 MITTELLAND CANAL (GRAVENHORST). 4 of 467, 6 of 463, of 152 from 5-Group with 5 Mosquitos. No loss. During all this period, Waddington, and most of England, was deep in snow. Aircraft were buried in snow, and runways could not be kept open for them. Landing on icy runways was difficult. (On 1.1.45, Bomber Command flew 598 sorties day & night, and 5 planes crashed trying to land.)
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More about the DORTMUND-EMS on 1/1/45.
Many years after the war I got to know Sam Nelson, (also a golfer), who was the Bomb Aimer in Merv Bache’s crew. He told me that his navigator was in the process of writing a small book covering their ‘troubles’ that day. I mentioned that I still had my logs & charts, including for that day, so I posted them to him, with the result that parts of my log & chart were photocopied (reduced size) and included in his book … and I received a copy; later a few more pages were sent about what happened to their crew members thereafter. Several of their crew had a reunion in Canberra just at the time when they refurbished the Lancaster display in the War Museum. They told the staff of their “trouble” on 1/1/45, and were given the privilege of going inside the Lanc, even though it was not then open to the public.
I’ve made a “pocket” at the back of this folder for that book.
On pages 33/4 of that book is some details about a major German air attack on Allied aircraft & airfields on the same morning as our daylight raid on the Dortmund-Ems Canal. It may have been fortunate for us that most of their fighters were otherwise-occupied that morning.
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[circled 27] 4.1.45. ROYAN (S. France).
8 of 467, 16 of 463, of 344 Lancs & 7 Mosquitoes. F/O R. Eggins (467) had a mid-air collision with another Lanc., they baled out & were rescued.
Stubborn German garrison holding out at Royan prevented Allies from using Bordeaux as a port. (the Americans had kept a big force in that area, hoping to capture Bordeaux much earlier.) Bomber Command was ordered to bomb the town. It appears that the order was cancelled, but that order not received by the Squadrons concerned. But the French people there were told of the cancellation. As a result 700 French people were killed & soured relations with Britain.
We took off at [deleted] 0122 [/deleted] 0104, did the usual Radius of Action to be back at base at 0140 at 2000’. We flew southwards crossing the coast near Portsmouth. We had GEE all the way 7 so kept nicely on-track; the winds mainly from NNE varied between 35 & 60 mph.
When just short of the target we got a message at 0359 1/2 “do not bomb for 2 min.” We were due there in about 1 min. I wrote “Have to orbit I think.” Then at 0400 1/2 we were told “Come in & bomb”, which we did at 0401 without having to orbit, at 6250’.
We had an easy trip home, airborne for 6h. 30m. Our bomb load was 1 x 4000 (“Cookie”), & 16 x 500 lb HE.
On the back of my chart are several diagrams showing what the displays looked like on the GEE-BOX, and an indication of the curves on our GEE Charts.
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NIGHT. 5-1-45 HOUFFALIZE. 10 of 467, 8 of 463, of 131 from 5 Group, with 9 Mosquitos attacked supply bottleneck at Houffalize in the Ardennes. Target was hit with great accuracy. No loss. (Main force of 664 attacked Hannover, losing [underlined] 4.7%. [/underlined])
[circled 28] 7-1-45 MUNICH. 11 of 467, 16 of 463, of 645 Lancs. and 9 Mosquitos. This was the last major raid on Munich by Bomber Command; the industrial area was severely damaged. 467 lost F/O W. McNamee & crew (all KIA) … Severe icing caused high fuel consumption … they ran out of fuel and baled out over the sea 5 mi. from Eye, but were not found.
V 8h 45m. 1 x 4000 + 6 J clusters.
(The winds on this trip were forecast at about 80 mph from NW, so the route to the target was direct across Germany, then home south of Switzerland. (Usually, on Munich trips, we’d go out south of Switzerland, hiding from radar behind the mountains – maybe – then come home, faster across Germany.) The winds, in places, exceeded 100 mph. We were forced to ‘waste time’ on the way to the target (dangerous over Germany!). We took 3 hours to reach Munich loaded, then 6 hours to come home empty!)
[inserted] I haven’t got my log & chart for this trip – mislaid when I was teaching ATC cadets at Forest Hills [/inserted]
NIGHT 13-1-45 POLITZ. 17 of 467, 14 of 463, of 218 Lancs & 7 Mosquitos from 5-Group, attacked the oil plant near Stettin. Intended to be [inserted] a [/inserted] blind H2S attack, but the target was clear and the 5-Group low-level-marking was used in an accurate attack. Photo-reconnaissance stated that the oil plant was reduced to rubble. No loss from Waddington.
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NIGHT 14-1-45 MERSBERG-LEUNA. 14 of 467, 14 of 463 of 573 Lancs & 14 Mosquitos attacked the synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Albert Speer wrote … “this was the most damaging raid on the synthetic oil industry”. (The remainder of Bomber Command raided Grevenbroich & Dulmen … a total of 1214 sorties.)
[circled 29] 16-1-45 BRUX. 16 of 467, 12 of 463 of 231 Lancs & 6 Mosquitos of 5-Group, attacked the synthetic oil plant in western Czecho-slovakia [sic] (the plant had P.O.W. camps quite close by). The raid was a complete success. Speer also mentions this raid “as a particularly severe setback to oil production”. (Bomber Command attacked 4 other targets this night with a total of 1238 bombers. All were successful … the loss rate was 2.4% (about 30). No loss from Waddington.
D 10h. 0m. 1 x 4000 + 12 x 500 (Not dropped – bomb circuit U.S.) 14250’
(The bombing circuit was faulty – we made 3 orbits of the target, taking 20 mins, but could not remedy the trouble. We set out for home with bombs aboard and flew home at fairly low altitude – varying between 4500’ & 8500’, our airspeed 15 – 20 mph slower than the rest of the force. Then we had to make a diversion into the North Sea jettison area to manually release one bomb fitted with anti-handling fuse. The result was that we were last home, nearly an hour late. As this was our last trip we were ‘expected’ to come home faster than usual & be ‘first home’ … many thought we were unlucky enough to ‘get the chop’ on our last trip. The aircraft had severe problems (besides the bomb circuit and resulted in a tragic crash on 2.2.45, killing all but one of the crew … included were T. Paine & W. Robinson from Mudgee.)
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I met Chris Jarret at a University conference in the 60’s and heard from him what happened to them in ‘D’ on the night of 2-2-45.
He was lucky to survive, although it was easy for the Bomb-Aimer to be first out when told to “Bale-Out”. The next man out would have been Tom Paine, the Rear Gunner, & he told me that he was the only other one to get out & open his ‘chute in time to avoid death, but that Tom landed over the crest of a hill & was killed by the plane crashing & bombs exploding near him, while Chris had landed on the other side of the hill.
Tom Paine was in my classes at Mudgee High right from 1st year in 1936.
Bill Robinson must have started in 1935 as he was a year ahead of us; but I can remember him as the school was rather small (about 400) compared to the 1000+ when I taught there in the ‘60s.
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NIGHT 22-1-45. GELSENKIRCHEN. 0 from 467, 1 from 463. (photographic)
JANUARY SUMMARY. The month ended with heavy snow and bad visibility. 467 did 90 sorties losing 3 crews (7 KIA, 14 Ev.) 4 crews ‘tour-expired’.
NIGHT 1-2-45 SIEGEN (Railway Yards) 21 of 467, 19 of 463 of 271 from 5-Group. 467 lost one crew – the navigator was our A-flight commander, Des Sands DFM, an Australian in the RAF on his second tour … he survived, parachuted, captured.
NIGHT 2-2-45 KARLSRUHE. 19 of 467, 16 of 463, of 250 from 5-Group. 467 lost 2 crews (14 KIA (incl. a ‘second dickie’ pilot) 1 POW. ‘D’ was one of the two. F/O A. Robinson [inserted] (pilot) [/inserted] and Rear Gunner – Tom Paine – went to school with me at Mudgee High – Tom was in the same class. (See extract from ‘The Bulletin’ for story by Bomb-Aimer survivor, whom I met accindentally [sic] at an external studies school at UNE (Armidale) in the ‘60’s.)
NIGHT 7-2-45 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL (near LADBERGEN)
13 from 467. 467 lost c.o. W/C J. K. Douglas & crew (+ second dickie Bomb-aimer) … 3 KIA, 4 POW, 1 Ev.
NIGHT. 8-2-45 POLITZ. 15 of 467, 16 of 463 of 163 total (5-Group was 1st ‘Wave’, other groups followed and put this important oil plant out of action for the remainder of the war. 1020 bombers attacked other targets including Krefeld.
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13-2-45 DRESDEN. 17 of 467, 19 of 463 of 144 Lancs and 9 Mosquitos from 5-Group attacked Dresden as the 1st wave of a 2-part attack, dropping 800 tons. The second wave, 3 hours later, dropped 1800 tons, mostly incendiaries, causing a devastating fire-storm. German report says that more than 50000 people died.
14-2-45 ROSITZ. 16 of 467, 16 of 463 of 224 Lancs + 8 Mosquitos from 5-Group, attacked the oil refinery near Leipzig. The rest of Bomber Command attacked 4 other targets – a total of 1316 ‘heavies’, loss rate 1.7%.
19-2-45 BOHLEN. 19 of 467, 16 of 463 of 254 Lancs and 6 Mosquitos from 5-Group. Raid was unsuccessful. The Master Bomber, W/C E.A. Benjamin DFF + Bar, was shot down by flak & killed. Only superficial damage was caused.
20-2-45 MITTLELAND CANAL near GRAVENHORST. 10 of 467, 10 of 463, of 154 Lancs & 11 Mosquitos of 5-Group … raids on the canal by now were called “the milk run”. A comment (in the Waddington report) … “5-Group had bombed the canal so often that the Germans could leave their guns aimed ready for the next raid”. The Master Bomber abandoned this raid when it could not be marked properly due to heavy low cloud. (The Main Force – of B.C. – did 4 raids using H2S. Total of 1283 sorties, loss rate 1.7%)
21-2-45 MITTLELAND CANAL (again). 10 of 467, 10 of 463 of 165 Lancs & 12 Mosquitos from 5-Group. Weather was clear, and the canal was breached.
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The Main Force raided 4 other targets, 1110 sorties; losses 3.1%. 463 Sq. lost their C.O. W/C Forbes on his last trip of 2nd Tour … shot down by German nightfighter ace, Major H.W. Schnaufer.
NIGHT 23-2-45. PFORZHEIM. 1 of 463 (Photo) 367 Lancs of 1, 6 & 8 groups. 1825 tons of bombs dropped … “The 3rd most effective raid of the war … killed 17000, and 83% of the town destroyed by a fire-storm.
DAY 24-2-45 DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 18 of 467, 11 of 463, of 166 Lancs & 4 Mosquitos from 5-Group … The target was obscured by cloud and the raid abandoned. No Loss.
FEBRUARY SUMMARY. The weather was often bad. 467 did 158 sorties, lost 5 crews + 3 who baled out + 3 “2nd dickies”. (25 KIA, 15 POW, 1 Ev.) 3 tours expired. 1 Crew crashed in training.
NIGHT 3-3-45. DORTMUND-EMS CANAL. 15 of 467, 15 of 463, of 212 Lancs + 10 Mosquitos of 5-Group breached the aqueduct near Ladbergen in 2 places, putting it out of action until after the war’s end. 467 lost F/O R.T. Ward and crew (7 KIA); F/O R.B. Eggins & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW), and the C.O. W/C E. Langlois & crew (5 KIA, 2 POW) … he had only become C.O. on 9th Feb. 8 Lancs lost over Ger. 20 over U.K.[inserted] loss [/inserted] 3.6%
(This night the Luftwaffe mounted “Operation Gisela” sending 200 night fighters to follow various bomber forces into England (& so not being detected). They took the British defences by surprise and they shot down 20 bombers over England (some were Lancaster training planes … a couple at Wigsley, where I was Duty Navigator in the control tower!) The bomb dump at Waddington was attacked but wasn’t blown up. 3 German fighters crashed flying too low.
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NIGHT 5-3-45 BOHLEN 15 of 467, 15 of 463 of 248 from 5-Group, attacked synthetic oil refinery. Target was cloudy but some damage. Bomber Command made 1223 sorties for 31 lost over Germany and 10 crashed in England … “visibility had detiorated [sic] for returning aircraft”. (Percy Jobson, of Wagga Wagga, a friend of hockey years, was shot down, parachuted, on this trip … a big write up given.)
NIGHT 6-3-45. SASSNITZ - - a port on the Baltic Sea.
NIGHT 7-3-45 HARBURG. oil refinery (5-Group). Bomber Command total (on various targets): 1276, loss 41 (3.2%)
DAY 11-3-45 ESSEN by 1079 bombers … the largest day raid by B.C. … “paralysed Essen until the Americans entered. 467 lost 1 crew (all KIA) on collision with a Hurricane near base in F.A. training.
DAY 12-3-45 Dortmund. 1108 planes, record tonnage 4851 tons … with fighter escorts, over 2000 planes … “put the city out of the war”.
NIGHT 14-3-45 LUTZKENDORF. 5-Group attack on oil refinery, losing 18 (7.4%). Main Force of 568 attacked Zweibrucken & Homburg & other minor targets … 2.8% loss
NIGHT 16-3-45 WURZBURG. 5-Group, 225 Lancs & 11 Mosquitos, dropped 1207 tons with great accuracy in 17 minutes … 89% of industrial part of city destroyed. 467 lost F/O Thomas & crew (6 KIA, 1 POW). Main force attacked NUREMBERG with 480 planes, losing 28 (4.2%), due to night-fighters joining the bomber stream before the target
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DAY 19-3-45 ARNSBERG RAILWAY VIADUCT. 37 Lancs of 617 and 9 Sqdns (and 1 photo Lanc. from 463) dropped 6 ‘Grand Slam’ 10-ton bombs … the ‘earthquake-effect’ collapsed the viaduct … the film was spectacular.
NIGHT. 20-3-45 BOHLEN. 5-Group. The main force was on Hemingstedt with 675 planes, loss rate 1.9%.
DAY 22-3-45 BREMEN. 5-Group. Rail bridge.
NIGHT. 23-3-45 WESEL. 5-Group. 1000 tons in 9 minutes from 9000’ … as close army support … “British Army crossed the river before the bombers had left the area”, and Wesel was in British hands before midnight (the bombing ended at 2239). Wesel claims it was the most heavily bombed town in Germany … 97% of buildings destroyed in main town area; population reduced from 250000 at outbreak of war, to 1900 in May ’45.
DAY 27-3-45 FARGE Oil Storage, 5-Group plus 2 of 617 attacking U-Boat shelters with 23’-thick concrete roof. 2 of the Grand-Slam bombs penetrated the roof and brought down thousands of tons of concrete and rubble, rendering the shelter ineffective.
MARCH SUMMARY 467 flew 185 sorties, lost 4 crews (24 KIA, 4 POW), 4 crews completed tours.
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DAY 4-4-45 NORDHAUSEN. 5-Group … Military barracks Many ‘forced labourers killed’.
DAY 6-4-45 IJMUIDEN … on ships … raid abandoned due to bad weather.
NIGHT 7-4-45 MOLBIS. Benzol plant … “all production ceased”.
NIGHT 8-4-45 LUTZKENDORF. 5-Group. Oil refinery. ‘Put out of action until end of war’. Main force was on Hamburg 440 planes, & other targets, total of 918 planes … 1.3% loss.
DAY 9-4-45 HAMBURG .. oil storage (5-Group) and 617 Sq attacked U-Boat shelters with Grand Slam bombs, and Tallboy bombs. Both raids successful. On this raid German ME 152 & 153 jet fighters attacked the Lancs for the first time.
NIGHT 16-4-45 PILSEN 5-Group. Rail Yards.
NIGHT 18-4-45 KOMOTAU 5-Group.
DAY 23-4-45 FLENSBURG Railway yards. (Abandoned – cloud)
NIGHT 25-4-45 TONSBERG Oil Refinery & U Boat pens (Norway)
463 Sq. lost the last Lancaster of the war (crew survived)
3300 Lancasters lost in the whole war.
467 Sq from Nov ’42 to 26 Apr ’45 – flew 4188 sorties, used 214 Lancs. lost 110 by enemy action, 4 damaged – crashlandings but recovered. 590 KIA. 117 POW. 8E Ev. 5 DSO, 146 DFC. 2 CGM. 36 DFM
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[underlined] 467 SQUADRON – R.A.A.F. [/underlined]
467 Squadron was formed at SCAMPTON, LINCOLNSHIRE 7-11-42.
Moved to BOTTESFORD by 30-11-1942. Moved to WADDINGTON 11-11-1943.
Bottesford Station Commanding Officers: G/C. SWAIN, F.R.O: OBE: DFC.
From 3.3.43. – G/C. McKECKNIE, W.N: DFC.
[underlined] 467 SQAUDRON moved to WADDINGTON 12.11.43 [/underlined]
Waddington Station Commanding Officers:
16.4.43. G/C. S.C. ELWORTHY, CCB, CBE, DSO, MVO, DFC, AFC, MA.
31.3.44. G/C. D.W. BONHAM-CARTER, CB, DFC.
14.4.45. G/C. E.D. McK. NELSON, CB.
1.8.45 G/C. D.D. CHRISTIE, AFC.
24.8.45. G/C. A.E. TAYLOR.
467 SQUADRON COMMANDERS:
7.11.42. W/C. C.L. COMM, DSO, DFC. _ _ _ KIA 16.8.43.
19.8.43. W/C. J.R. BALMER, DFC, OBE. _ _ _ KIA 11.5.44.
12.5.44. W/C. W.L. BRILL, DSO, DFC & Bar _ _ _ Died 1964.
12.10.44. W/C. J.K. DOUGLAS, DFC, AFC. _ _ KIA 8.2.45.
9.2.45. W/C. E. le P. LANGLOIS _ _ KIA 3.4.45.
4.3.45. W/C. I.H. HAY, DFC. _ _ To disbandment.
467 STATION ADJUTANTS: F/L. BURFIELD_CARPENTER.
F/L. A.D. McDONALD (A18121): F/L. J.M.W. LOVE.
467 SQUADRON moved to RAF METHERINGHAM 16.6.45 and were disbanded there October, 1945.
[underlined] 467 STATISTICS COMPILED FROM OPERATIONAL RECORD BOOKS [/underlined].
First Operational Sortie – 2/3.1.1943 – To FURZE _ Minelaying.
Last Operational Sortie – 26/26.4.45 – to TONSBURG.
[underlined] OPERATIONAL SORTIES ATTEMPTED [/underlined]:
No. of a/c actually took off on operations: 3977
No. of Operational sorties completed: 3795
No. of Operational sorties failed: 182
[underlined] REASON FOR FAILURE OF SORTIE [/underlined]:
a/c failed to return – listed missing 105
a/c early return due to Engine Failure: 28
a/c early return due to Electrical Failure: 10
a/c “ “ “ to Armament Failure: 9
a/c “ “ “ to Oxygen Failure: 9
a/c “ “ “ to Instruments, radio, intercom failure: 12
a/c “ “ “ to Ice in flight & ice damage: 6
a/c “ “ “ to Navigational Error: [underlined] 3 [/underlined]
[underlined] 182 [/underlined]
No. of Sorties completed in a/c damaged by Enemy Action: 230
No. of Aircrew listed in Operational Record Books as flown on ops from 467 Sqdn, RAAF: (inc. RAF, RNZAF, RCAF): 1814
No. of Aircrew listed in ORB’s as War Casualty from 467 Sq: (includes) RAAF, RAF, RNZAF, RCAF): 760
No. of whole crews posted to 467 Sq. for Ops: 258
No. of whole crews finished tour of ops – 30 or more: 74
No. of whole crews lost on Ops: 115
No. of whole crews still operating when hostilities ceased 8.5.45. and not tour expired: 31
No. of whole crews posted to other Squadrons during tour: 34
No. of whole crews with no Ops. before hostilities ceased: 4
No. of crews from 53 Base who flew on ops from 467 Sqdn and not listed as posted to 467 Sqdn. 6
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[inserted] Extract of “WAR” List for an Operation … late 1944. [/inserted]
F/S J.W. Singer (Can) – Sgt A. Carson – [missing name]
PB. 193 ‘W’ – F/O R.J. Harris – P/O J.T. Adair – Sgt T. Andrews – Sgt R. Walker
P/O H.F.C. Parsons – F/L R.W. Cook – Sgt S. Saunders
EE.136 – F/O A.L. Keely – F/S W. Chorny (Can) – Sgt A.E. Wotherspoon – Sgt C.H. Connwell
F/S L.W. Tanner – Sgt S.D. Chambers – Sgt J.E. Johnson
LM.713 – F/O C. Newton (Can) – Sgt P. Grant – Sgt W. Gregory – Sgt E.H. Cooper (Can)
Sgt R. Flynn (Can) – Sgt L.G. Kelly – Sgt R.S. Stevens (Can)
LM.715 ‘O’ – F/O R.W. Ayrton (Aus) – Sgt M.J. Herkes – Sgt H.K. Huddlestone – Sgt D.K. Chalcraft
F/S N. Bardsley – Sgt W. Scott – Sgt J.A.W. Davies
ME.809 – F/O R.C. Lake – P.O J.A. Peterson (Can) – Sgt R.W. Baird – Sgt R.A. Morton
W/O G.B. Watts (Can) – F/S G.E. Parkinson – P/O R.D. Kerr (Can)
No. 467 Squadron, Second Wave
NF.908 ‘C’ – F/L J.K. Livingstone – F/L D.O. Sands – F/O E.G. Parsons – F/O R.N. Browne
P/O W.D. McMahon (Aus) – F/O J. Pendergast – F/O T.C. Taylor
PB306 – F/O R.J. Mayes (Aus) – F/O L.J. Hart (Aus) – Sgt D.H. Hamilton – F/S J. Manning
F/S A.R. Edgar (Aus) – F/S J.G. Muir (Aus) – F/S K.W. Cary (Aus)
LM.100 ‘D’ – F/O P.R. Gray-Buchanan (Aus) – F.S. H.G. Adams (Aus) – Sgt D.M. Coutts – F/S J.R. Giles (Aus)
F/S B.J. Payne (Aus) – F/S E.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S K. Nichols (Aus)
PD.215 ‘F’ – F/O L. Landridge (Aus) – F/S D.G. Beverley (Aus) – Sgt J. Halstead – Sgt D.J. Allen
F/S K.C. Woollam (Aus) – F/S W.C. Denny (Aus) – Sgt B.A. Davies
LM.542 ‘K’ – F/O T.A. Gummersall (Aus) – F/S L.C.C. Chalcraft (Aus) – Sgt J. Clemons – F/S E.R. Baldwin (Aus)
F/O F.A. York (Aus) – F/S S.J. Anders (Aus) – F/S W.H. Bradbury (Aus)
LM.233 ‘M’ – F/O J.J. Sheridan (Aus) – F.S G.W. Gould (Aus) – Sgt B.J. Ambrose – Sgt J. Hodgson
F/S A. Raymond (Aus) – F/S W. Branagh (Aus) – Sgt R. Ward
LM.677 – F/O J.J.J. Cross (Aus) – F/S D.F. Edwards (Aus) – Sgt K.M. Pope – F.S W.K. Perry (Aus)
F/O V.L. Drouyn (Aus) – F/S W.V. Maurer (Aus) – F/S M.D. Wilkie (Aus)
NF.910 – F/O G.H. Stewart (Aus) – F/O R. Faulks (Aus) – Sgt G. Hopwood – F/S D.J. Morland (Aus)
F/S R. Galov (Aus) – F/S M.J.H. West (Aus) – F/S F.H. Skuthorpe (Aus)
NF.917 ‘Q’ – F/O R.S. Forge (Aus) – F/O H.M. Bissell (Aus) – Sgt W.C. Bradley – Sgt H. R. Harvey
F/O R.H. Darwin (Aus) – F/S E.J. O’Kearney (Aus) – Sgt R. Haire
ND.473 – F/O R.H. Mellville (Aus) – F/S J.L. Klye (Aus) – Sgt R.J. Brady – F/S D.D. Suter (Aus)
F/S J.F. Tongue (Aus) – F/S B.T. Hoskin (Aus) – F/S R.C.M. Newling (Aus)
NF.908 – F/O L.R. Pedersen (Aus) – F/S J.S. Hodgson (Aus) – Sgt D.R. Ba.dry [sic] – Sgt E.W. Durrant
F/S P.K. Garvey (AUS) – F/S V.J.M. McCarthy (AUS) – Sgt A.E. Dearns
NN.714 – F/O E.B. Rowell (Aus – F/S R.L. Morris (Aus) – Sgt A.J. Halls – Sgt. A Thomson
F/S D.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S A.S. Smith (Aus) – Sgt A. Thomson
F/S D.J. Taylor (Aus) – F/S A.S. Smith (Aus) – Sgt J. Hodge
No. 463 Squadron, Third Wave
ND.133 ‘X’ – W/C W.A. Forbes (Aus) – F/O J.A. Costello – P/O W.A. Martin – F/S A.J. Norman
F/O W.J. Grime – P/O W. McLeod – P/O K.L. Worden
PD.311 ‘O’ – F/O P.J. Bowell (Aus) – F/S E.A. Petersen (Aus) – Sgt W. Forster – F/S W.H.J. Butcher (Aus)
F/S W. Plumb (Aus) – W/O J.R. Williams (Aus) – F/S I.D. Dutfiield [sic] (Aus)
LM.130 ‘N’ – F/O A.G. Stutter (Aus) – F/S P.L. Wilkinson (Aus) – Sgt H. Walsh – F/S M.F. Woodgate (Aus)
F/S P. O’Loughlin (Aus) – F/S D.J. Browning (Aus) – F/S H.R. Holmes (Aus)
PD.337 ‘L’ – F/O F.H. Smith (Aus) – Sgt E. Moss – ?
F/S B.A. Donaghue (Aus) – F/S R.T. Simonson (Aus) – F/S E.R. Cameron (Aus)
ND.977 – F/O G.T. White (Aus) – F/S G.D. Smith (Aus) – Sgt C. Jackson – Sgt V.G. Dunn
F/S H. Robinson (Aus) – F/S J.J.B. Middleton (Aus) – Sgt W. S. Bayne
PD.330 ‘F’ – F/O K.P. Brady (Aus) – F/S E.D. Rees – Sgt C.R. Levy – F/S G. Berglund (Aus)
F/S G.W. Boyes – F/S J.D. Stevens (Aus) – F/S J.E. Cox (Aus)
MD.332 – F/O B. Ward-Smith (Aus) – F/O R.W. Markham (Aus) – Sgt E. Taylor – F/S A.J. Tyson (Aus)
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[underlined] 5 Group, [/underlined] the biggest of 6 in Bomber Command.
Our 467 squadron was one of 18 Lancaster squadrons the Group. They were:-
9 at Bardney
227 at Balderton
[missing number] 4 (Rhod.) “ Spilsby
[underlined] 463 & 467 “ Waddington [/underlined]
49 “ Fulbeck
619 at Strubby
50 & 61 “ Skellingthorpe
630 “ East Kirkby
57 “ East Kirkby
617, 627 “ Woodhall Spa [symbol] Mosquitos
83 & 97 (Pathfinders) Coningsby
106 Metheringham
189 Fulbeck
207 Spilsby
[underlined] Some notable raids [/underlined]:
1944 Sept. 12/13. First operational use of [underlined] Loran [/underlined].
“ 23/4. Dortmund-Ems canal breached by [underlined] Tallboy [/underlined] (12000 lb bomb, designed by Barnes Wallis).
Oct. 3 Sea wall at Westkapelle (Walcheren Is) breached.
“ 14/5 Biggest night ops by Bomber Command of the war.
“ 23/4. Part of 1055 plane raid on Essen.
“ 25 “ “ 771 “ “ “ “, finishes it.
Nov. 2/3 “ “ 992 “ “ “ Dusseldorf.
“ 4/5. 174 Lancs breach Dortmund-Ems canal again.
“ 12 Tirpitz sank at Tromso by 9 & 617 Sqdns.
1945 Jan 1/2. 157 Lancs breach Mittleand canal.
“ 4/5. raid on Royan kills many French civilians.
“ 7/8. Part of 654 a/c; last raid on Munich.
Mar 14. Bielefeld aquaduct [sic] broken using Barnes Wallis’s new 22000 lb Grand Slam bomb. by 617 Sqdn.
“ 27. U-boat shelter at Farge blown up using the Grand Slam bomb, by 617 Sqdn.
Feb. 20/21 First of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin by Mosquitos of 627 Sqdn.
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[circled 8]
[underlined] 5 Group [/underlined] Sqdns. As at 22.3.45.
Lanc I, III
9 Bardney
44 (Rhod.) Spilsby
49 Fulbeck.
50 Skellingthorpe
57 East Kirkby
61 Skellingthorpe
106 Metheringham
189 Fulbeck.
207 Spilsby
227 Balderton
463 [brackets] RAAF Waddington
407 RAAF Waddington [/brackets]
619 Strubby
630 East Kirkby
[symbol] 617 Woodhall Spa.
[brackets] 83 PFF Coningsby
97 PFF Coningsby [/brackets]
627 Woodhall Spa. Mosquito IV, XX, 25.
(83, 97 & 627 on loan from 8 Group.)
[inserted] [underlined] 1944. [/underlined] [/inserted]
Sept 12/13 First operational use of LORAN.
“ 23/4. Dortmund Ems canal breached by Tallboy (12000 lb).
Oct 3. Sea wall at Westkapelle (Walcheren Is) breached.
14/15 BC. biggest night ops of war.
23/24. 1055 raid on Essen. 25th 771 on Essen finishes it.
Nov 2/3. 992 on Dusseldorf.
4/5. 174 breach Dortmund Ems canal again.
12. Tirpitz sank at Tromas by 9 & 617 Sq.
Jan 1/2. 157 breach Mittleand Canal.
[inserted] 1945
Jan 4/5 Royan – many French casualties.
7/8 Last raid on Munich 654 a/c
Mar 14. Bielefeld aqueduct broken … Grand Slam 22000 lb.
27 U boat shelter at Farge successful using “ “ “
Feb. 20/21 first of 36 consecutive night raids on Berlin by mosquitos. [/inserted]
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Extracts from “The Hardest Victory – RAF Bomber Command in WW II by Dennis Richards. (Hodder & Stoughton, 1944.)
1944. March to June. The Transportation Plan, preparatory to OVERLORD … the invasion in Normandy. As part of the plan to convince the Germans that the landing would be in the Pas de Calais, far more bridges and railway workshops and marshalling yards were attacked North of the Seine than South of it. In this phase Bomber Command dealt with 37 of the railway centres, 8th American Air Force heavies 26, & AEAF (fighters, fighter-bombers, light & medium bombers, & recon. aircraft, a mixture of RAF & USAAF squadrons) 20. Bomber command dropped nearly 45000 tons on these centres, twice the tonnage of the other 2 put together. Harris in “Bomber Command” wrote:- “Bomber Command’s night bombing proved to be rather more accurate, much heavier in weight & more concentrated than the American daylight attacks, a fact which was afterwards clearly recognised by SHAEF when the time came (later) for the bombing of German troop concentrations within a mile or so of our own troops.”
In this phase, Bomber Command made 69 attacks, 9000 sorties & lost 198 planes (1.8%). They did enormous damage. In the end about 2/3 of the 37 centres were classed as completely out of action for a month or more, and the remainder as needing only some further “attention” from fighter-bombers.
Unhappily, the toll of friendly civilian lives was sometimes more than the “prescribed” limit of 100 – 150 per raid … (Coutrai 252, Lille 456, Ghent 482), but overall the total was much less than the 10000 “limit”.
The attacks on rail centres by all 3 air forces proved catastrophic for the Germans. Only about 12% of rolling stock was fit for use. A division from Poland took 3 days to get to West Germany, then 4 weeks to the Normandy battlefront!
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A particularly important raid, both in technique & results, was that on 5/6 Apr. (’43) on the Gnome et Rhône aero-works at Toulouse. 144 Lancs from 5 Group, with Leonard Cheshire of 617 SQN doing the initial marking at low level from a Mosquito. 2 Lancs of 617 reinforced the marking with great accuracy & this led to a raid which completely destroyed the factory. Thenceforth, Harris normally entrusted 5 Group (the largest in the Command) with its own marking, independent of the Pathfinder Force.
Bomber Command’s biggest task just before the invasion was to help silence the enemy’s coastal batteries … most nights since 24/25 May, & for deception purposes many of them outside the intended invasion area. But as D-Day neared, so the assault stepped up. On 2/3 June, 271 bombers attacked 4 batteries in the Pas de Calais (where the Germans most expected the invasion). On 3/4 June, 135 bombers attacked batteries at Calais & Winereux. On 4/5 June, 257 a/c attacked … this time in the invasion area. On 5/6 June (when invasion fleet was under way) Bomber Command put on max. effort … 1136 a/c (1047 attacked) [inserted] 5000 + tons of bombs. [/inserted] against [deleted] the [/deleted] 10 of the main batteries on the invasion coast. Other air formations & naval bombardment also attacked there & between them 9 of the 10 batteries were made incapable of sustained fire against the invasion forces.
In the week after D-Day, B.C. flew 3500 sorties to prevent reinforcements getting to the front. In the most skilful attack, 8/9 June. Lancs of 83 Sqn lit up railway tunnel at Saumur, then marked by Mosquitos, then 25 Lancs of 617 Sqn. dropped new 12000 lb “Tallboys” [inserted] [symbol] designed by Barnes Wallis. [/inserted] blocked the tunnel & delayed the Panzers.
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[circled 3]
During the struggle in Normandy, B.C. operated in strength close to battlefield. 14/15 Jun, 337 vs troops & vehicles at Aunay & Evrecy (near Caen). 30 Jun first B.C. daylight there … 266 Lancs & Halis & a few Mosquitos & Spitfire escort bombed a road junction at Villers-Bocage from 4000’ & frustrated a panzer attack. Of B.C.’s 5 other attacks in close support the biggest was 18 Jul .. GOODWOOD (max effort) … 1056 from B.C., 863 of AEAF & 8th A.F. to help the push SE of Caen towards Falaise …. but had bad weather & unsubdued anti-tank guns stopped the offensive (only 6 miles max.). But it impressed the Germans … Von Kluge who’d just replaced Rommel, wrote to Hitler on 21 Jul:- “There is no way by which, in the face of the enemy air forces’ complete command of the air, we can discover a form of strategy which will counterbalance the annihilating effects [underlined] unless we withdraw [/underlined] from the battlefield. Whole armoured formations allotted to counter-attack were caught beneath bomb carpets of the greatest intensity so that they could be got out of the torn-up ground only by prolonged effort … The psychological effect of such a mass of bombs coming down with all the power of elemental nature on the fighting forces, especially the infantry, is a factor which has to be taken into very serious consideration. It is immaterial whether such a carpet catches good troops or bad. They are more or less annihilated, and above all their equipment is shattered ...”
(He suicided a month later when Hitler wouldn’t allow a withdrawal)
On 7/8 Aug. 1019 a/c of B.C. raided 5 points in advance of Allied troops … helping Canadian 1st Army to open the way to Falaise.
Allies had 14000 a/c against German 1000 in those weeks.
25 Aug. Paris was free. 3 Sept. Brit 2nd Army in Brussels.
Resumption of oil targets delayed by V-1 threat.
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[circled 4] Jan (1944)
Hitler had hoped to begin V-1s vs London as ‘New Year present’ but damage to ‘ski” sites, & Fiesler works at Kassel & their own trouble with getting the bomb to operate reasonably – caused set-backs. Allied bombing of railways held up delivery of launchers & bomb components.
12/13 Jun first V-1 attacks. 7 of 55 sites managed to fire total of 10 … of which 3 reached England. But they improved. Bet. 15/16 & 16/17 Jun. 144 crossed Kentish coast & 73 reached London.
Operation CROSSBOW … B.C. + AEAF + 8th A.F. attacked V-1 sites from mid June to mid-August … using 40% of B.C. strength Targets were the modified launch sites, supply depots, & ‘large sites’ (V-2 rockets [deleted] maybe [indecipherable word] [/deleted]. B.C. attacked these day & night. B.C. flew 16000 sorties, 59000 tons vs the V-1 targets only losing 131 a/c ([symbol] 1%).
By mid-Aug, less need [symbol] defences (AA & fighters redeployed & more effect … + proximity fuses [symbol] [symbol] 20% reaching target; + balloons + finally our armies overrunning the launching sites.
Every day but one from 5 to 11 Sept Harris sent out 300 or more a/c to bomb [deleted] h [/deleted] [underlined] Le Havre [/underlined] area. (We did our [underlined] first trip [/underlined] on 10 [deleted] 8 [/deleted] Sept. 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb.) that day 992 sorties. Total for the week 2500 sorties, 9750 tons … the ground attack after the last air raid on 11 Sept. succeeded & only c. 50 fatalaties [sic]. [inserted] (our 3rd) [/inserted] [underlined] Boulogne [/underlined] [inserted] we dropped 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500 lb. [/inserted] had become the next objective. We were in big raid on 17 Sept. by 762 a/c, opening the way for attack by Canadian army, … garrison gave in on 22 Sept, in diary of captured German officer: “Sometimes one could despair of everything if one is at the mery [sic] of the RAF without any protection. It seems as if all fighting is useless & all sacrifices in vain.”
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[circled 5]
Germans still held Dunkirk & Ostend … it became clear that key to faster supply to our armies was Antwerp, 40 miles up R. Scheldt. Allies captured Antwerp on 4 Sept. but Germans still held river banks, South Beveland & [underlined] Walcheren Is. [/underlined] dominating its approach from the sea. Allies tried, MARKET GARDEN, airborne troops to capture bridges over Maas, Wasl & lower Rhine … a disaster, losing 1st Airborne Div’n. [symbol] Try to open the Sheldt Estuary. B.C. began attacks on Walcheren Is. in 3rd week of Sept. Hitting batteries proved difficult. Canadian army told to capture Is. … their C.O. suggested bombing might breach its sea-walls & flood some low-lying batteries. Oct 2nd .. leaflets & broadcast to locals. Oct 3. .. Pathfinder Mosquitos in waves of 30 created a big gap in wall 60’ thick at top & 204’ at base. (617 Sqn with Tallboys not needed … took ‘em home!)
Many parts of Is. now flooded, but no surrender. Further attacks on walls on Oct 7, 11 & 17. We did our [underlined] 11th op [/underlined] [inserted] on 7 OCT. [/inserted] on [underlined] Flushing dyke [/underlined] walls, 2 sticks of 7 x 1000 lb, 2 runs at fairly low alt. & achieved a good breach.
We also bombed gun batteries on [underlined] Walcheren [/underlined] Is again on Oct. 23 (14 x 1000 lb) and Oct 30 (14 x 1000 lb) … [underlined] our 13th op [/underlined].
The plan was to take Wal. Is by amphibious assault & to ‘soften it up’, B.C. raided c 277 on Oct 28; then on Oct 29 with 358 a/c, then on [underlined] Oct 30 with 110 a/c [/underlined]. [inserted] [underlined] our 15th [/underlined] [/inserted] (us). On 1 Nov. Canadian & Scottish troops began a week of hard fighting … Royal marines sailed landing craft through the gaps in the sea-walls. B.C. flew 2000+ sorties in 14 raids there, 9000 tons of bombs … only lost 11 a/c ([symbol] 0.4%).
Antwerp not used for another 19 days … time taken to clear the estuary of mines.
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B.C. continued to attack towns in Germany & coastal targets in the autumn & winter of 1944.
On [inserted] 12th [/inserted] Sept. we did our [underlined] 2nd trip [/underlined] on [underlined] Stuttgart [/underlined] (1 x 4000 lb + 13 J clusters). (Our skipper had been [deleted] there [/deleted] [inserted] to [underlined] Danstadt [/underlined] [/inserted] the previous night as “2nd-dickie”). Then our [underlined] 4th [/underlined] on Bremerhaven on 18 Sept. (18 cans). & 5th on Munchen-Gladbach the next night 19 Sept (1 x 2000 lb + 12 J clusters) on which Guy Gibson as master bomber went missing (KIA). Our [underlined] 6th on [/underlined] 23 Sept. was our first of 4 raids on [underlined] Dortmund [/underlined] Ems canal “the vital link between the Ruhr & North Sea”. (14 x 1000 lb). B.C. did about 10 raids on the canal, “each time draining the canal for several miles & leaving scores of barges stranded. And this was not simply a one-off piece of temporary damage. As soon as, by the effort of 4000 (Todt) labourers, the canal was once more fully working, B.C. breached it again - & went on doing so as required until the end of the war.” (It was a fairly “dicey” target – they [underlined] knew [/underlined] we’d be coming & [underlined] where [/underlined] (where the aqueduct was above ground level.)
Sept 26. Op [symbol] 7 on Karlsruhe (18 cans)
“ 27 [symbol] 8 “ Kauserlauten (18 cans).
Oct 6 [symbol] 10. Bremen (18 cans)
Oct 5. Daylight formation (!) on Wilhelmshaven (18 cans). - - cloud obscured target & we (& others) bombed by H2S … the only time we used it on ops … mostly we were denied its use because they reckoned German fighter &/or flak could pick us up from its transmission.
Oct. 19. Op [symbol] 12. Nuremburg (1 x 2000 lb + 12 J clusters).
Oct 28 op 14 Bergen (Norway) U-boat pens … but brought bombs back due to smokescreen over target. Had to descend to near mountain tops to clear cloud – did so safely using GEE.
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“In the last quarter of 1944, nearly half the tonnage dropped by B.C. was aimed at Urban areas in general rather than on more specific targets. … eg. Stuttgart, Nuremburg; [underlined] Dusseldorf (our 16th [/underlined] on Nov 2nd, 11 x 1000 + 4 x 500) Munich our [underlined] 23rd [/underlined] on Dec. 17 (1 x 4000 + 9 cans + 1 monroe). & [underlined] Munich [/underlined] again our 28th on Jan 7th (1 x 4000 + 6 J clusters).
Our [underlined] 18th [/underlined] on 11 Nov. on Harburg oil refinery (near Hamburg) caused huge fire visible 100 miles on way home (1 x 4000+ 6 x 1000 + 6 x 500 lb).
16 Nov, Our 19th a daylight on [underlined] Duren [/underlined], part of a huge effort to react to battle of bulge destroyed the town to rubble. (12 x 1000 lb).
Our 24th Gdynic .. Dec 18, on Pocket Battleship ‘Lutzow’ (also there the P.B. Admiral Von Sheer) … may have caused enough damage to have Latzow towed (?) to Swinemunde where 617 Sqn finished it off on 16/17 April ’45 (10 x 1000 SA.P.).
5 Group. HQ Grantham, then Moreton Hall, near Swinderby.
[underlined] AOC’s [/underlined] Harris 11.9.39. Bottomley 22.11.40.
Slessor 12-5-41. Coryton 25.5.42. Cochrane 28.2.43
Constantine 16.1.45.
A/C. Hampdens, Manchesters, Lancasters, Mosquitos.
[underlined] B.C. casualties, Aircrew [/underlined] Operational K. 47120
Died as POW 138
Missing now safe. 2868
POW “ “ 9784
Wounded. 4200
[underlined] Non-operational [/underlined]
K. 8090
Wounded 4200
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A brief summary of the Bache crew’s experiences after the Operation to the Dortmund-Ems Canal on 1st January 1945.
A number of entries in the 160 pages that I wrote during 1945 in the second of my three war diaries refer to events connected with, or as a result of, the Bache crew’s experiences on 1st January of that year. (The three diaries contain a total of some 420 pages which cover only some sections of my overseas service in the RAAF, mainly while travelling to and while in Canada doing my navigator training, the Operation on 1st January 1945, that period which is summarised below and my trip back home from England. Unfortunately they do not cover any of the crew’s other Operational Sorties in detail but an amount of information on these is available from other sources in my possession)
The following very short summary makes use of extracts from some of the entries in my second diary, (other than from the 17 pages which contributed to my chronicle of events directly associated with our 16th Operation on 1st January 1945). It then goes on to refer to information that I have received since from various members of our crew covering their individual moves after the crew broke up in May 1945, plus each one’s post war status.
However, for the sake of brevity, this summary does not include any detailed references to those of our Operational Sorties which we flew between 19th February and 18th April 1945 – and some other of the events in which the crew were involved between January and May of that year – but which were not as a direct consequence of the Operation on 1-1-45 These matters may (possibly?) be covered at some future date.
So, picking up this account from a point part way through January 1945 –
My additional navigational duties during 1945.
During the period early in 1945 when our crew was non-operational, while we waited for Ernie and Cec to recover from their injuries received on 1st January, I was employed in the squadron’s navigation section in various ways. Some of these duties continued after we returned to Ops – particularly on the occasions where our crew was not flying on that Op.
Amongst other things, I had been requested by the squadron navigation leader to assist him by looking after the navigation Order Book, which covered matters such as changes in navigational procedures as these came through from No 5 Group Headquarters, as well as setting up an improved system for bringing this information to the notice of the navigators on the squadron. I was also asked to devise ways of drawing attention to cases or areas in which we should take steps to improve navigational performance.
I “dreamed up” a cartoon type character of a navigator who I named “Ayling-Rouse” (who was something like a mixture of the infamous idiotic pilot character, P/O Prune and the well known ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius) to assist with this and it seemed to be quite successful in getting the guys’ attention! – the style being recommended for use elsewhere in the Group.
I was also shown by the section’s navigation assessment officer how to assess the squadron navigator’s Operational flying log sheets and plotting charts – and learned how to get the navigators away on “cross-country” training flights etc.
I was then introduced by the squadron navigation leader to Operational navigation briefing procedures and other of his duties – and taken to some of the pre-Operation navigational planning conferences, which were held via a Group telephone hook up between
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the various squadrons just prior to our squadron Navigators Briefing for the Op. concerned.
As an upshot of all this, I was made deputy navigation leader and eventually stood in for the squadron navigation leader on occasions – including the conducting of the Navigators Briefing and the navigation specialist officer’s briefing contribution at the Main Briefing which followed, for those of No. 467 Squadron’s crews who were to participate in the daylight Bomber Command attack on “Hitler’s Hideout” at Berchtesgaden, in April 1945.
As it turned out – like so many other planned attacks – this Operation had to be “scrubbed” (ie cancelled) at the last minute because of bad weather in the target area – but was carried out a day or so later by 359 Lancasters – of which some were from other squadrons in No 5 Group and some from Nos. 1 and 8 Groups. However it so happened that Nos. 463 and 467 Squadrons were not available to go there with them on that day due to our station’s involvement in an attack on Tonsberg in Norway which required take-off later in the same afternoon.
(As a result of the additional navigation section work which I had carried out while our crew was “off Ops” waiting for the return of Cec and Ernie and also after we returned to Ops, the squadron navigation leader, when he was informed by the squadron commander early in May that the Bache crew had been selected as one of several crews for a voluntary posting from No. 467 Squadron to Transport Command, tried to convince me not to go with them. He indicated that I was being recommended for a navigation leader’s training course – and would then probably go with the squadron on its intended transfer to the Far East theatre of War.
However, because of the close crew bonds developed during our earlier Operations – and particularly as a result of the events on 1st January 1945, I decided to stick with Merv, Sam and Cec in their transfer to Transport Command.)
Ernie returns to the crew and we return to Operations.
As events turned out, Ernie was declared fit for flying after several weeks and we resumed Ops with him back with us on 19th February, as by this time we were starting to “champ upon the bit” again. However we had to make use of the substitute wireless operators – Cec still being out of action.
Merv’s promotion and his new role on the squadron.
By then Merv had been promoted to the rank of Flight Lieutenant and on occasions had acted as O/C of our “A” Flight, then as O/C “B” Flight, to which our crew was transferred some time in March.
Cec returns to the crew for our trip in “S Sugar”
According to my diary, Cec – who had been recovering from his ankle injury in the RAF hospital at Wroughton, near Crewe, (as was Ernie after they were both transferred from the hospital in Holland) – was flown back to the squadron by Merv and I when he has discharged from there on 22nd February.
However he did not stay, but went to a convalescence place near Liverpool and remained unfit for flying for the remainder of our Operational Sorties – rejoining the crew just in time for our flight to Jouvincourt in France in PO-S on 6th May to bring a planeload of ex-prisoners of war back to England.
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End of the war in Europe and its effects on No. 467 Squadron.
Hostilities in Europe ceased on 7th May 1945 and No. 467 Squadron was one of the Bomber Command squadrons selected for transfer to the Far East theatre of War.
Part of the Bache crew transfer to Transport Command.
Cec then joined Merv, Sam (who had been commissioned in February) and I, in our transfer on 11th May from No 467 Squadron of Bomber Command to Transport Command – to which we were posted as one of five “part-crews” from Waddington.
(These crews were taken from those who were apparently classified as “nominally tour expired” – ie those who had carried out 28, but in our case 25, Operations).
We went to the recently transferred RAAF No. 466, ex No. 4 Group Bomber Command Halifax squadron at Driffield for Transport Command flying training.
Sam’s Departure from Driffield.
We thought that the bomb-aimers who were transferred with us to No. 466 Squadron would have been trained as load masters for Transport Command flying crew “cargo supervision etc”, but were informed shortly after arrival on No. 466 Squadron that it had been decided they were now not required.
So Sam was to leave us! However the blow was softened considerably when he received notification that, because of his long period of service in the RAAF (including time served as a medical orderly in ground staff in the New Guinea theatre of war), he was to be repatriated back to Australia where he would be eligible for discharge from the Service.
He was first of all transferred to the Australian Aircrew Holding Centre at Brighton, on the south coast of England – to await a draft back home aboard a troopship.
Merv, Cec and I continue Transport Command training on No. 466 Squadron.
Merv, Cec and I continued on with No. 466 Squadron at Driffield – where we picked up an Australian Second Pilot (Merv becoming Senior Pilot) – and then converted to and flew in their Halifax bombers.
We then went with the squadron when it relocated to RAF Bassingbourn in September.
From Halifaxes to Liberators.
At Bassingbourne the squadron converted from Halifaxes to 4 engine Liberator bomber type aircraft – American designed and built – and a somewhat different aircraft from the 4 engine British designed and built heavy bombers in which we had previously flown. (It was not long before I christened the Liberator “the Flying Brick” after comparing its flying characteristics with those of our beloved Lancasters).
After we had completed a number of familiarisation exercises in the UK we were scheduled to undertake training flights and later, service transport operations, between UK and India.
The end of World War II in the Far East and the disbanding of 466 Squadron.
We were about to carry out our first training flight to India when the war in the Pacific area suddenly ended – resulting in the squadron being disbanded on 26th October 1945.
Page 3
[page break]
So the four of us, including the Australian Second Pilot, were transferred to Brighton for repatriation back home and discharge from the RAAF.
Our return to Australia.
As things turned out, all the Australian members of our crew, except for Sam, who had left England much earlier – finished up finally going back to Australia together on the same ship – the Athlone Castle.
Our return by sea to Australia is another story – including us becoming involved in a Mutiny aboard the first ship, the Orion, on which we were embarked – and from which we were later disembarked again, back in England, after it broke down in the Bay of Biscay!
Return Home and Post War
Sam
Sam, who received his promotion to Flying Officer in August, returned to Sydney in NSW for discharge from the RAAF. He and his wife, Valda, now live in Wagga, N.S.W.
Merv
Merv returned to Adelaide in South Australia for discharge as a Flight Lieutenant. He and his wife, Ethel, continued to live there until he died in 1974.
Cec
Cec returned to Brisbane in Queensland, for discharge, by which time he had been promoted to the rank of Flying Officer. He married Dawn there and they continued to live in Brisbane, but later moved northwards to Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland – where he died from a war related complaint in 1997.
Les
Les, Jim and Ernie remained at Waddington – Les transferring to No 463 Squadron to join Jack Blair’s crew (also ex 467 Squadron, on which they had done 24 Ops prior to the end of the war in Europe). They subsequently moved with the squadron to RAF Skellingthorpe in July. Here he remained until the war in the Pacific concluded, after which No. 463 Squadron was disbanded on 25th September 1945 and all of its RAAF personnel were repatriated back to Australia. He had the rank of Pilot Officer when he was discharged.
Les married and he and his wife, Norma, now live at Seymour, Victoria.
Jim
Jim remained on No. 467 Squadron at Waddington after Merv, Sam, Cec and I left for Transport Command – and while there joined F/O C F Stewart’s crew (which had done 6 Ops on 467 Squadron prior to the end of hostilities in Europe) – as mid upper gunner.
They were posted to No. 463 Squadron, which was also located at Waddington, on 4th June – and went with this squadron when it was relocated to RAF Skellingthorpe on 3rd July.
They remained with No. 463 Squadron until it was disbanded on 25th September 1945 – after which Jim was transferred to Brighton along with all its other Australian members and then returned to Australia for discharge from the RAAF. He was promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer sometime during this period.
Jim married and he and his wife, June, live in Sydney, N.S.W.
Page 4
[page break]
Australian War Memorial
Page 1 of [missing number]
No. 467 Squadron
No. 467 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force was formed at Scampton in the United Kingdom on 7 November 1942. Although intended as an Australian squadron under Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme, the majority of its personnel were originally British. The replacement of these men with Australians was a gradual process and it was only towards the end of the war that the squadron gained a dominant Australian character.
The squadron relocated to Bottesford on 23 November 1942 and commenced operations on 2 January 1943. A year later it moved to Waddington, which remained the squadron’s home until the end of the war. Equipped with Avro Lancaster heavy bombers, and forming part of 5 Group, RAF Bomber Command, the squadron’s operational focus for much of the war was the strategic bombing offensive against Germany. Bombing almost entirely by night, it participated in all of the major campaigns of the offensive including the battles of the Ruhr, Berlin and Hamburg. In addition to Germany, the squadron also attacked targets in France, Italy, Norway and Czechoslovakia. On 20 June 1943, 467 was the first Bomber Command squadron to participate in the “shuttle service” where aircraft would leave the United Kingdom, bomb a European target, and then fly on to an airfield in North Africa. There they would refuel and rearm and then bomb another target on their return flight to Britain. The German port of Friederichshafen was the outbound target, and the Italian port of Spezia the inbound one.
In addition to the strategic bombing offensive, 467 Squadron was also employed in support of ground operations prior to, and during the D-Day landing, during the drive out of the Normandy beachhead in mid-1944, and during the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945. The squadron also participated in the offensive to remove the threat posed by Germany’s terror weapons and participated in raids on the weapons research facility at Peenemende, and on V1 flying bomb and V2 rocket assembly and launch sites in France.
467 Squadron’s last bombing raid of the war was an attack on the oil refinery and tankerage at Vallo in Norway. Even before the cessation of hostilities, the squadron was employed to ferry liberated Allied prisoners of war from Europe to Britain and it continued in this role after VE Day. The squadron was one of several identified to form “Tiger Force”, Bomber Command’s contribution to the strategic bombing campaign against Japan. It relocated to Metheringham to prepare for this role, but the war against Japan ended before “Tiger Force” was deployed. 467 Squadron disbanded on 30 September 1945.
Between January 1942 and April 1945, 467 Squadron flew 3,833 sorties and dropped 17,578 tons of bombs. It suffered heavily in the course of its operations – 760 personnel were killed, of whom 284 were Australian, and 11 [missing number] aircraft were lost.
References AWM 64, RAAF formation and unit rolls [2 symbols] ORMF 0118, Roll 95 [2 symbols] 1/426 December 1942 – December 1943 [2 symbols] 1/427 January – December 1944 [2 symbols] 1/428 January – October 1945 [2 symbols] 1/435A December 1942 – March 1945; Units of the Royal Australian Air Force; a concise history. Volume 3, bomber units, (Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995).; H.M. Blundell, They flew from Waddington! 463 – 467 Lancaster Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force, (Sydney: W. Homer, 1975).
Category Unit
http://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U59451/
4/10
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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463 & 467 Squadron Notes on Ops
Description
An account of the resource
Extracts from publications giving details of all operations by 467 and 463 Squadrons from 10 September 1944 to 25 April 1945. Details include number of aircraft, target, bombloads and losses. Interspersed are details of operations carried out by Herbert Adam's crew on 467 Squadron between 10 September 1944 and 16 January 1945 which include many extracts from his diary describing operations and daily activities. Included are photographs of aircraft, crew members, air to ground views, targets, cook's tour and a map diagram. Details of 5 Group Squadrons, Extracts from books and a summary of Bache crew's experiences after operation to Dortmund Ems canal.
Creator
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H G Adams
Format
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Seventy eight page handwritten book
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Text. Personal research
Identifier
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MAdamsHG424504-170215-01
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Conforms To
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Pending review
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
France
France--Le Havre
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
France--Pas-de-Calais
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Germany
Germany--Darmstadt
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Bremerhaven
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Dortmund-Ems Canal
Germany--Karlsruhe
Germany--Kaiserslautern
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Braunschweig
Netherlands
Netherlands--Walcheren
Netherlands--Vlissingen
Germany--Nuremberg
Norway
Norway--Bergen
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Germany--Hamburg
Norway--Trondheim
Germany--Munich
Germany--Heilbronn
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Harburg (Landkreis)
Germany--Giessen (Hesse)
Germany--Euskirchen (Kreis)
Poland
Poland--Gdynia
Belgium
Belgium--Houffalize
France--Royan
Germany--Merseburg
Czech Republic
Czech Republic--Most
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Siegen
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Pforzheim
Germany--Sassnitz
Germany--Essen
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Halle an der Saale
Germany--Würzburg
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Netherlands--IJmuiden
Germany--Flensburg
Norway--Tønsberg
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Czech Republic--Plzeň
Germany--Herne (Arnsberg)
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
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1944-09
1944-10
1944-11
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
1944-04-05
1944-04-06
1944-06-14
1944-06-15
1944-06-30
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
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Tricia Marshall
463 Squadron
467 Squadron
5 Group
air gunner
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Toulouse (5/6 April 1944)
Cook’s tour
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
Grand Slam
H2S
killed in action
Lancaster
Mosquito
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
nose art
RAF Waddington
searchlight
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tallboy
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1178/34346/YvanRielHXXXX1213v1.1.pdf
bfe2d0efed9fc5392b7418374955617b
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Van Riel, Coby
J F Van Riel
Description
An account of the resource
Three items. An oral history interview with Coby Van Riel (b. 1932), a memoir and her brothers war diary. She was a recipient of the Operation Manna food drops.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-08-25
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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VanRiel, JF
Transcribed document
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
Han’s war diary
(Brother of Coby van Riel)
December 1944
Thursday 28
Holiday – No confirmation classes.
The streets are getting icy today, it’s thawing. In the evening, we had soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 x air raid warnings. There was heavy bombardment today and shooting. Mr Boelens from Arnhem dropped in.
Friday 29
Holiday. We had carrot soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 6 x air raid warnings. 9 V1’s flew over. Someone was attacked on the Apeldoornse laan.
Saturday 30
Holiday. In the evening we had barley soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 3 V1’s flew over. 12 x air raid warnings.
Notes
We were planning to nick a door this evening, we almost managed to get it off its hinges when we were caught in the act.
Sunday 31
New Year’s Eve. Holiday. In the evening, we had sugar beets and red cabbage from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded, 4 x air raid warnings. We stayed up till 1 o’clock in the morning. It’s been snowing.
Monday 1 January 1945
New Year’s Day. Holiday. In the evening, we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 6 x air raid warnings. 2 V1’s flew over, one of which landed in Indigo Street.
Notes
Mother, father, aunt Co, uncle Bernard visited aunt Riek. In the afternoon Stiny went ice skating with the family Meuldijk on a piece of land bordering one of the side streets of the Driebergenstraat.
Tuesday 2 January
Holiday. In the evening, we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 9 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. 2 x air raid warnings. I went to No. 1 Kerkplein to obtain information about handing in a potato ration voucher.
Wednesday 3
Holiday. In the evening, we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 6 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. 1 x air raid warning.
Thursday 4
Holiday. No confirmation classes. In the evening we had carrot soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 9 x V1’s flew over. 6 x air raid warning. We received letters from aunt To and Elly.
Friday 5
Holiday. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 6 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. 6 air raid warnings.
Saturday 6
Holiday. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 V1’s flew over, 3 x air raid warning. The streets were icy. People were ice skating in the streets.
Sunday 7
Holiday. In the evening we had bouillon (broth) with small pieces of meat from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 11 V1’s flew over of which one exploded, 2 x air raid warning. It snowed (sleet).
Monday 8
Holiday. In the evening we had sugar beets from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
11 V1’s flew over. There was a thick layer of snow on the streets that night. Then it started to rain and the snow disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Tuesday 9
Holiday. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage soup with small pieces of meat from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 6 V1’s flew over of which one exploded. Mother, aunt Co, aunt Cor, Stiny, Coby and I went to “Wij Draaien” in the cinema Capitol. In the evening mother threw a little soup over father. Irma, Elly, Servaas, Vera, Coby and I went sledging.
Wednesday 10
Holiday. In the evening we had kale soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
5 V1’s, 1 x air raid warning. There was no further snow fall. Mother bought a new little teapot.
Thursday 11
Holiday. In the evening we had sauerkraut soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 5 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded, 1 x air raid warning. No further snow fall, it’s still freezing. I went to the ‘Kerkplein’ in the morning.
Notes: Stiny went skating with Family Meuldijk on a piece of land on one of the side streets of the Driebergenstraat.
Friday 12
Holiday. In the evening we had porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 9 V1’s flew over. We had porridge instead of bread yesterday afternoon and this afternoon because we didn’t have enough bread. It’s thawing. I’ve cleaned my skates. We received letters from aunt Lien and Nico.
Saturday 13
Holiday. In the evening we had kapucijner (chick pea) soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 V1’s flew over. It’s still thawing. I have sanded my skates and painted them.
Sunday 14
Holiday. Frans (de Winter) was still at the altar. There was a severe frost. I have started to work on the electricity current drawing. In the evening we had beetroots from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 10 V1’s flew over. 2 x air raid warnings. Pastor Roeseling took Church Service in Voorburg. (normally in The Hague). Pastor Harderwijk takes the Service here.
Monday 15
Holiday. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 4 V1’s flew over. Uncle Luuk lent me skates, from father I got a T-square, a set square (45 degrees) and a protractor. It’s no longer freezing.
Tuesday 16
Holiday. In the evening we had tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 6 V1’s flew over of which one exploded. It’s no longer freezing.
Wednesday 17
Holiday. In the evening we had potato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 4 V1’s flew over. Irma, Elly, Vera, Coby and I played outside today in the afternoon. (hide and seek).
Thursday 18
Holiday. In the evening we had soup (?) from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 2 V1’s flew over both of which exploded. Gale force winds. No confirmation classes.
Friday 19
Holiday. Gale force winds, hail in the evening and sleet. Not a single V1. In the evening we had onion soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother got an extra portion.
Uncle Luuk and I fetched 90 kg potatoes from Valkenhuis.
Saturday 20
Holiday. In the evening we had tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother got an extra portion. 13 V1’s flew over. Uncle Luuk and I had planned to go to the Public Bath house in the morning but it was closed due to a fuel shortage. It’s snowing.
Sunday 21
Frans wasn’t at the altar today. In the evening we had beetroots with sugar beets and potatoes + small pieces of meat from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. There’s been a heavy snow fall. Mother had an extra portion.
Monday 22
Holiday. I would have accompanied father but this wasn’t possible because he and 2 “lopers”
(helpers) did one round together. There is still snow on the ground. In the evening we had potato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother had an extra portion. 4 V1’s flew over. Twice air raid warning. We received a letter from aunt To that Frits (her son) is back in The Netherlands again.
Note Coby: Father was a bread deliverer. “Lopers” were helpers to pull the baker’s delivery- cart through the snow and for protection from looting.
Tuesday 23
Holiday. In the evening we had tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother had an extra portion. There is still snow on the ground. 7 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded.
Wednesday 24
Holiday. In the evening we had soup (?) from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother had an extra portion. 7 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. There is still snow on the ground. It’s been freezing. I bought a small leather strap for my skates.
Thursday 25
Holiday. It’s been freezing and snowing. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother had an extra portion. No confirmation classes.
8 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded.
Friday 26
Holiday. In the evening we had ½ litre soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 8 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. It’s been snowing and freezing. Bread rations reduced by 500 grams. I have arranged to go sledging with Irma and Elly tomorrow afternoon 2.30.
Saturday 27
Mr Veldink’s birthday. Holiday. .In the evening we had ½ litre soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 11 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. It’s been snowing and freezing. Coby wasn’t well and Irma’s sledge was broken, we therefore couldn’t play outside.
Sunday 28
Holiday. Frans was at the altar again. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage soup with flower bulbs! from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 8 V1’s flew over, three of which exploded. In the afternoon I sledged with Irma and Elly and threw snowballs. There is still snow on the ground.
Monday 29
Holiday. There is still snow on the ground. In the evening we had flower bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 9 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. Father did his last round (due to looting).
Tuesday 30
Holiday. In the evening we had flower bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. There had been a severe frost and heavy snow fall. Food provisions have been left by the Swedish Red Cross in Meppel (town in county Drente North East) for children over 14 years of age. Not a single V1.
Wednesday 31
Holiday. It is thawing and it’s been raining. We had salted endive with sugar beets from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 1 x air raid warning. Not a single V1. Father had exchanged a bottle of milk for 1a coupon of bread, this was used to make custard.
Thursday, 1 February 1945
Holiday. The snow has almost gone. 12 V1’s flew over, 3 of which exploded. We had tulip bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Christmas holidays extended till 18 February 1945 inclusive. No confirmation classes.
Friday 2
Holiday. We had tulip bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. The snow has gone.
Saturday 3
Holiday. We had tulip bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 4 V1’s flew over, two of which exploded. 4 x air raid warnings. I fetched rhubarb tubers with uncle Luuk from his garden. Father became unwell. Stomach ache and nausea.
Sunday 4
Holiday. Frans was at the altar again. We had salted endive and potatoes from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 11 V1’s flew over, two of which exploded. 2 x air raid warnings. Father isn’t well. Stomach ache and nausea.
Monday 5
Holiday. We had Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 6 V1’s flew over of which two exploded. We got a letter, a pair of socks and a loaf of rye bread from aunt Lien. Father went to work, but he hasn’t fully recovered. He’s been to the doctor and was given a medical tonic. He’s not allowed to eat anything from the Central Kitchen for 3 days.
Tuesday 6
Holiday. We had salted Savoy cabbage soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
11 V1’s flew over, two of which exploded. 7 x air raid warnings. Father stayed at home. Dr. Clias has been. I went to the “Volharding“ (similar to Co-Op) office, to tell them that Father was ill.
Wednesday 7
Holiday. Father stayed at home. Mother went to the Volharding office but got nothing. We had ????? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 4 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded I assembled the radio and tried it out, but it was not working. 1 x air raid warning.
Thursday 8
No confirmation classes. Holiday. We had ???? soup from the Central Kitchen. 16 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. Father is still unwell. Irma, Elly, Coby and I played outside in the afternoon.
Friday 9
Holiday. We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 V1’s flew over.
2 x air raid warnings. Father is still unwell. 2 V1’s exploded. I went to Loosduinen where there had been heavy bombing.
Saturday 10
Holiday. We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 11 V1’s flew over.
3 x air raid warnings. Father is up and about again. I went to the Volharding for yeast.
Sunday 11
Holiday. There was an air raid warning at half past nine in the morning. We thought that church would start at 10.15. But it started at 10 o’clock. We arrived too late. I wasn’t at the altar. But Frans was. In the evening we had sauerkraut with sugar beets from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 9 V1’s flew over, 2 of which exploded. 2 x air raid warnings.
Monday 12
Holiday. We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 10 V1’s flew over. Father and uncle Luuk have been to the doctor. Father hasn’t been back to work yet. Uncle Luuk was planning to go to Rotterdam but it was raining too hard.
Tuesday 13
Uncle Bernard’s birthday Holiday. We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 13 V1’s flew over. In the morning, we had coffee with milk and sugar. Father has not been back to work yet. 2 V1’s exploded. Uncle Gerard’s house was broken into.
Wednesday 14
Holiday. Father hasn’t yet returned to work. In the evening, we had brown bean soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 12 V1’s flew over one of which exploded. 6 x air raid warnings. Irma, Elly, Coby and I played outside.
Thursday 15
Holiday. No confirmation classes. Father still hasn’t returned to work. In the evening, we had red cabbage with sugar beets from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 7 V1’s flew over. 2 x air raid warnings. Stiny and Coby went to aunt Jet’s.
Friday 16
Holiday. In the evening, we had kapucijner (chickpea) soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 V1’s flew over. Father still hasn’t returned to work.
Saturday 17
Holiday. I went to the Volharding in the morning to get yeast. In the evening, we had ???? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 13 V1’s flew over. Father hasn’t returned to work yet. With uncle Luuk and I fetched 100 kg sugar beets from his office. Christmas holiday extended to 5 March 1945 inclusive. Uncle Gerard has been.
Sunday 18
Holiday. Father has been to Uncle Gerard. In the evening, we had carrots and onions from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Irma, Ellly, Coby, Vera and I played outside. Frans was not at the altar. 9 V1’s flew over. Stiny had been to Aunt Jet’s.
Monday 19
Holiday. Father still hasn’t returned to work. He’s been to uncle Gerard’s. In the evening, we had ??? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 9 V1’s flew over, 2 of which exploded. I had planned to go to Servaas in the evening but he wasn’t at home.
Notes: Father went to the Volharding office to ask if he could have a loaf of bread which the other staff members had received because they had guarded the shops. He didn’t get anything however. Uncle Luuk had been to Rotterdam.
Tuesday 20
Holiday. In the evening, we had ??? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 12 V1’s flew over, 1 of which exploded. 3 x air raid warnings. Father has returned to work. Irma got a new little sister called Marion. I fetched a small box of “Sacharine” (sweetners) on the Leeghwaterkade. (Note: sweetners as there was no sugar anymore).
Wednesday 21
Holiday. In the evening, we had chick pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 8 V1’s flew over, 1 of which exploded. I saw it explode. 10 x air raid warnings. Irma, Coby and I went outside for a little while. I arranged to meet Servaas v. Dam to go fishing tomorrow.
Thursday 22
In the evening, we had red beetroots with sugar beets + meat from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Holiday. No confirmation classes. I went fishing in the Loosduinseweg and caught more than 60 sticklebacks. 15 x air raid warnings. 5 V1’s flew over. Shooting, bombing and flights all day. Irma, Coby and I rollerbladed in the afternoon. Grenade bombs across the whole city, at Westland, Marlot, Bezuidenhout etc. Jo gave birth to a son Tonny.
Friday 23
Holiday. In the evening, we had tulip bulb! stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. I went to Servaas van Dam in the afternoon. 3 x air raid warnings. 10 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. New regulation from the Central Kitchen. Food distribution from
3.30 - 5.30pm.
Saturday 24
Holiday. Turkey has declared war upon Germany and Japan. In the evening, we had tulip bulb soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 5 x air raid warnings. 1 V1 flew over. Yeast is no longer permitted to be sold. Letter from Charles. Uncle Willem’s birthday.
Sunday 25
Holiday. Coby has been to aunt Jet. In the evening, we had Savoy cabbage and sugar beets from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 10 x air raid warnings. Frans was not at the altar. Egypt has declared war upon Germany and Japan. 2 V1’s flew over.
Monday 26
Holiday. In the evening, we had vermicelli soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 10 x air raid warnings. 9 V1’s flew over, one exploded. Bomb in the Spuistraat. Irma, Coby and I played outside. I collected Coby later. I was going to collect a letter from Elly Peysel, but she didn’t have one as she had burnt her hand.
Tuesday 27
Holiday. In the evening, we had flower bulb soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Uncle Bernard had been to a conference in Bagatelle. Uncle Luuk took a crate with empty bottles (in the morning) and collected a crate of full bottles in the afternoon. 7 x air raid warnings. 9 V1’s flew over, 2 of which exploded. Syria has declared war upon Germany and Japan. Uncle Charles came and brought with him: potatoes for uncle Ben and father. For everybody one egg, bread, emergency bread (probably “zeekaken”) + crackers, flour, rye, socks for Father, meat in gravy, oats and oil. In the afternoon I went for a short while to Servaas van Dam and later also with Elly and later on with Irma and 2 other boys.
Wednesday 28
Holiday. In the evening, we had kroten (red beetroots) with carrots and onions from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. In the morning I took uncle Charles’s spectacles to be repaired and picked them up in the evening. 13 x air raid warnings. 5 V1’s flew over. In the evening Thea took a letter to uncle Charles. In the afternoon, Coby, Ima, Elly, Vera, Servaas, Pietje and a few other children played outside. No newspaper.
Thursday 1 March
Irma, Coby and I played outside.
Holiday. No confirmation classes. Uncle Charles left in the morning at 6.30. In the evening we had ???? from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 10 V1’s came over. 8 x air raid warnings. Today we received the birth announcement from A.J. v. Heusden. Mother has gone to Jo. Holiday extended till 2 April inclusive.
Friday 2 March
Holiday. In the morning Mother and I fetched bread, butter and barley from the Swedish Red Cross. In the evening we had flower bulb soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 12 x air raid warnings. 9 V1’s flew over. We are eating white bread with egg given to us by aunt Lien (wife of uncle Charles). Irma, Elly, Vera, Coby and I played outside.
Saturday 3
Holiday. In the evening, we had flower bulb! soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 2 V1’s flew over. 3 times air raid warnings. There was heavy bombing in the morning. Bezuidenhout (district in The Hague) is on fire. Also a bomb fell in the Nunspeetlaan. No water, no gas, no electricity. Rumour has it that the English are in
Den Helder. (Navy Base top North West of county North Holland).
Sunday 4
Mrs. Roeseling’s birthday. Holiday. I didn’t go to church. I wrote a letter to Mrs Roeseling. In the evening, we had Savoy cabbage from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 3 V1’s flew over, one of which exploded. Jo, Tonny and the baby (called Tonny after his dad) are here.
Monday 5
Holiday. Rieka is here. In the evening, we had ???? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 9 x air raid warnings. No newspaper. 1 VI. Miep and Bob and Jo and Tonny’s houses burnt to the ground.
Tuesday 6
Holiday. I received a letter from Nico and Bookshop Hoonhoud. Aunt Co received a letter from Nico. Cor received a letter from Suze van Hessen. In the evening, we had pigeon bone soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 12 VI’s flew over.
Wednesday 7
Holiday. In the afternoon at 1.15 I was allowed to have a meal at Beusekom’s (the butcher) in the Nunspeetlaan 170. Coby had to be there at 1.30. We had soup with meat. In the evening, we had pigeon bone soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 11 VI’s flew over.
Thursday 8
No confirmation classes. Holiday. 11 V1’s flew over. 3 x air raid warnings. In the evening at 6.50, we had red cabbage from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Mother wrote a letter to aunt Lien. I started writing a letter to Nico.
Friday 9
Holiday. 8 x air raid warnings. 3 VI’s exploded. 13 VI’s flew over. In the evening, we had pea soup from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Bombing throughout the day. Irma, Servaas, Coby, Dickie and I had been outside. Irma has my German exercise book.
Saturday 10
In the evening, we had pea soup from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 13 air raid warnings. 5 VI’s flew over. Bombing and shooting throughout the day.
Sunday 11
Holiday. Uncle Rinus’ birthday. I didn’t go to church. 8 VI’s flew over. 10 x air raid warnings. In the evening, we had stew (stamppot) with peas from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Jo and Tonny have been. Irma, Elly and Vera have been but mother, Coby and I had gone out for a walk.
Monday 12
Holiday. In the evening, we had pea soup from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 15 VI’s flew over, of which one landed on the Kwartellaan. Irma, Elly, Coby, Vera, Servaas, Arie and Yvonne played outside in the afternoon. Bob came.
Tuesday 13
Holiday. I went fishing in the Soestdijksekade and didn’t catch anything. In the evening, we had pea soup from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Father collected it. Bob has been. Irma collected books from Coby. 1 V1 flew over. 8 x air raid warnings.
Wednesday 14
Holiday. In the evening, we had deep freeze stew (Savoy cabbage or sweetheart cabbage) from the Swedish Red Cross in the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 2 V1’s flew over.
4 x air raid warnings. The use of V3 been started. 1 V3 flew over. Co and I had pea soup at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. Mother visited Aunt Jet with Coby.
Thursday 15
No confirmation classes. Holiday. In the evening, we had onion soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. I went fishing in the Soestdijksekade and caught nothing. 1 x air raid warning. 3 V projectiles flew over, 1 V projectile exploded. I returned Servaas’ book to him, have given him one book and he gave me 1 book.
Friday 16
Holiday. . In the evening, we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 8 V projectiles flew over. 3 x air raid warnings.
Saturday 17
Holiday. . In the evening, we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
4 V projectiles flew over. 8 x air raid warnings. 1 V projectile exploded. Letters from aunt Lien. Rumours of Peace Conference.
Notes (Han)
H.C. van Maasdijk taken up temporary position as mayor of ’s Gravenhage (The Hague) and Rijswijk.
Sunday 18
Holiday. I went to church with Father, Mother and Coby. Frans wasn’t at the altar. In the evening, we had red beetroots from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 10 x air raid warnings. 7 V projectiles flew over, one of which exploded. Irma, Vera, Servaas and Arie played outside in the afternoon with Coby and I. Pastor v. Harderwijk is with Pastor Roeseling.
Monday 19
In the evening, we had ??????? soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
10 V projectiles flew over. 8 x air raid warnings. 2 V projectiles exploded.
(St Josef) Tuesday 20
Holiday. I brought 30 metres washing line for aunt Co. I took a letter to Thea. Aunt Cor and Stiny went to Westland and brought back endive and celery. In the evening, we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. 10 x air raid warnings.
7 V projectiles flew over. Irma fetched Coby’s book.
Wednesday 21
Holiday. We received an extra 400 gram “regeringsbrood” (government) bread from the International Red Cross in Geneva. In the evening, we had red beetroots from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 5 V projectiles flew over. 7 x air raid warnings. In the afternoon, Coby and I had vegetable soup at the butchers in the Nunspeetlaan.
Thursday 22
No confirmation classes. Holiday. Mother and I went to Westland from 8 o’clock to 3 o’clock and brought back 4 kg spinach. In the evening, we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 V projectiles flew over, 1 of which exploded. 10 x air raid warnings. The English have crossed the Rhine at Maine-Mannheim.
Friday 23
Holiday. In the morning Uncle Luuk and I fetched 0.8 mud anthracite from Mr Hekman in the Rutger Jan Schimmelpennincklaan. 0.8 mud. In the evening, we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 V projectiles flew over, 1 of which landed in “sperrgebiet” (German word), a no go area for Dutch people, occupied by the Germans.
11 x air raid warnings.
Saturday 24
Holiday. In the evening, we had rye porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
6 x air raid warnings. England has started a big offensive in The Netherlands. Irma, Coby and I played outside in the afternoon. Letters from Mr. Donia for Mr. Bakker. Mr. Donia was the headmaster of our grammar school and Mr. Bakker a teacher in Geography.
Notes (Han)
Coby wasn’t well on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, being 21, 22 and 23 March. The English crossed the Rhine at Emmerik, Rees, Wesel into Germany.
Sunday 25
Holiday. Palm Sunday. Stieny, (another spelling of Stiny). Coby and I went to church and we received palms. Frans was once again at the altar. 4 x air raid warnings. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Monday 26
Holiday. Irma, Elly, Yvonne, Servaas, Coby and I played outside in the afternoon. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 V projectiles flew over, 2 of which exploded. 1 x air raid warning.
Tuesday 27
Holiday. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 3 x air raid warnings. 6 V projectiles flew over, 1 of which exploded. I fetched a letter for Cor from Elly via Thea’s sister.
Wednesday 28
Holiday. We received a letter from aunt Lien. At 7 o’clock in the evening we had carrot and onion stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I had hashed meat with potatoes at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. Uncle Luuk is receiving extra food rations (bijvoeding). 1 V projectile flew over.
“Witte Donderdag” (“Maundy Thursday”) Thursday 29
No confirmation classes. Holiday. 10 o’clock Holy Communion Service. Stieny, Coby and I have been to church. Frans was also at the altar. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 1 x air raid warning. We received 400 gram white bread, 125 gram margarine and Coby 250 gram oatmeal from the Swedish Red Cross.
Good Friday 30
Holiday. 10 o’clock Holy Communion Service. Stieny, Coby and I have been to church. In the afternoon, aunt Co, Stieny and I went to a string quartet in our church,
J. Hayden’s “7 Kruiswoorden” In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 9 x air raid warnings.
Easter Saturday 31
Aunt Lena’s birthday. Holiday. Vera van Spanje’s birthday. No Easter Services. Stieny,
Coby and Mother have been to Westland (endive : 15 kg at f 0,70, lettuce at 20 cent each and rhubarb: 2 bunches at f 1,50). In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 3 x air raid warnings.
Notes (Han): “In the choice of love, everyone is their own boss and a fool in the eye of another”.
In 1945 606 V projectiles flew over, 69 exploded.
Easter Sunday 1 April
Holiday. 10 o’clock. Holy Communion Service. Aunt Co, Stieny ma, pa, Coby and I have been to church. Frans was also at the altar. In the evening we had carrot and onion stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Uncle Gerard’s house has been broken into again. We had a salad with our bread.
Easter Monday 2 April
Holiday. No church. We again had a salad with our bread. We also had coffee with milk. In the evening we had carrot and onion stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
4 x air raid warnings. Yesterday, Frans and I were given f 1,00 from the Pastor.
Tuesday 3
Back to school. (Laan 5). We were only at school for a short time. In future we will have school on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 o’clock to 11.30 o’clock. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 7 x air raid warnings.
I bought the book: “Sports Fisherman Pay Attention” (Sportvissers opgepast).
Wednesday 4
In the evening we had deepfreeze stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 2 x air raid warnings. Today we were allowed to go home at 11 o’clock. Eating at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan has been postponed till Thursday 5 April 1945. I fetched 30 kg potatoes with uncle Luuk from his office.
Thursday 5
No lessons. Irma, Coby and I went to Westland (spinach 10 Kg = f 5,50, rhubard 2 Kg f 0,80, radishes 10 bunches f 1,60). It was raining very hard on the way back, Coby and I went back with the mail-coach. We had vegetable soup with meat at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. We received 400 gram white bread from the Swedish Red Cross. In the evening we had a thick vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. The soup at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan was too late because there wasn’t any meat. For a few days now, there has also been low water pressure due to a shortage of electricity.
Friday 6
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in Gaslaan. Bread rations reduced by 200 grams. There were only 4 other children in our class. Yesterday for the first time, Uncle Luuk got extra food portions (bijvoeding) (*I.K.B. Nunspeetlaan).
*I.K.B. = Inter Kerkelijk Bureau = Church Organisation.
Saturday 7
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. 1 x air raid warning. There seem to be dahlia bulbs in the soup over the last few days. It has a bitter taste.
Sunday 8
In the evening we had endive and potato stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Pastor Roeseling took the Service in Voorburg. Pastor van Harderwijk at ours. Frans was
also at the altar. I should have operated the organ pedals today but Paul did it.
Monday 9
We got an extra half liter buttermilk from the Central Kitchens. (Distribution point Teylerstraat) queued from 1 o’clock to 4 o’clock. In the evening we had a thin vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We made porridge with barley from the buttermilk. Letter from aunt To.
Tuesday 10
Odessa fell a year ago. Irma and I have been to Westland. 1 x air raid warning. I took uncle Luuk’s suitcase to Velpsestaat 17g. In the evening we had Savoy Cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Aunt Cor had also been to Westland.
Wednesday 11
In the evening we had Savoy cabbage deep-freeze soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I had soup with meat and minced meat from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. Irma, Elly Coby, Yvonne and I played outside in the afternoon. During the game, I wacked my head into Elly’s head making her fly across the street.
Thursday 12
No confirmation classes. In the evening we had porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Today or yesterday President Roosevelt died of a brain aneurism. (a cerebral haemorrhage). I became ill in the morning, severe shakes, I went to bed and had a stomach upset, diarrhoea and headache, a temperature.
Friday 13
In the evening we had porridge (gone off/turned sour) from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I didn’t go to school. I stayed in bed. I might have a light concussion. Coby has brought me homework. We received 400 grams white bread and Coby 250 grams rice from the Swiss Government Organisation.
Saturday 14
In the evening we had a thin soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We opened a pot of meat from aunt Lien, minced the meat and mixed everything into a stew. (hotch potch).
I still stayed in bed.
Bob Ruis (neighbour’s son, friend and school-mate ) fell on top of a landmine during the chopping of logs and flew into the air.
(Han underlined with red pencil about Rob Ruis plus his following notes), probably of shock and worry. Notes Han:
We were under curfew this week. When will the liberation come ???? Bread rations have been fixed at 600 gram per week !!!!!!! And then ……….???!!!
Sunday 15
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I got up again at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. I didn’t go to church. Frans however was at the altar.
Monday 16
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Today and tomorrow razzia’s on men up to 60 years of age.
Note Coby: Han crossed out the following: (Groningen, Friesland and Drente have been liberated. The entire Afsluitsdijk is in Allied hands (undamaged). The Allies have already crossed this. These rumours are doing the rounds). Mother has been to family Ruis. I wrote a letter.
The “Afsluitdijk” is between the county North Holland and Friesland, crossing the sea in the North of Holland, from West to East, Friesland on the border of North West Germany.
Tuesday 17
I went to the doctor’s with mother and I have to stay in bed for a few more days. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Cor and Stien have been inoculated against typhus. Stien became unwell.
Wednesday 18
Coby and I had vegetable soup from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. Mother fetched it for me. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I still stayed in bed.
Thursday 19
No confirmation classes. Henk Grandia’s birthday. In the evening we had swedes from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I still stayed in bed. In the evening we got carrots and onions with a tin of meat from aunt Co.
Friday 20
Hitler’s birthday. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I still stayed in bed. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross. He was given an extra loaf of bread. We received 400 gram white bread and Coby 125 gram rice and 125 gram oatmeal from the Swiss Government Food Organisation. Notes. Friday 20 April 1945: There was a meeting in the office in the evening from 7.16 o’clock to 7.45 at *Vlera’s (1 member per household) regarding the place and the supply of provisions, which people are given in our cellar when there are street fights. In addition, 30 to 35 able-bodied men were chosen.
* Vlera = a meeting place.
Saturday 21
I still stayed in bed. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. In the afternoon from 2.30 to 4.30 1 cubic metre sand was hoisted onto the roofs of every other 3 residential roofs. Coby went to an afternoon school in the Hemsterhuisstraat
( 2-4 o’clock). It was about Indonesia (Saidja + Adinda), a Wajang puppet show, a shadow show.
Sunday 22
In the evening we had “stoofsla stampot” (a stew of a lettuce one can cook) from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I didn’t go to church. In the afternoon we had a salad with our bread. I got up in the afternoon. Coby went to the van Spanjes in the afternoon. In the evening we had “raapstelen” (turnip tops) with a pot of minced meat from aunt Lien.
Monday 23
In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. (Swedish Red Cross). Mother went to Bob Ruis’s funeral in the morning. I stayed in bed this morning. The stove was on for the last time yesterday. How are we going to cook food from now on ??????
When will liberation come ??????????
Tuesday 24
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan (Swedish Red Cross). In the afternoon, I went with mother to the pedicurist to pay for her support soles and after that we went for a long walk and ate “slagcreme” (made from beetroot juices). We stoked up the stove again but what will happen tomorrow ?????????????????
Wednesday 25
In the evening we had “stoofsla” stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father had to do a bread delivery for the Red Cross and was therefore given an extra loaf of bread.
I haven’t been to school yet. Irma is ill. Food from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan has been postponed till Friday. Coby and I have registered at the I.K.B. for extra rations (school).
Wednesday: Today the Peace Conference begins in San Francisco, attended by 44 countries. Stiny isn’t well, she’s in bed.
Thursday 26
No confirmations classes. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father had to do a bread delivery for the Red Cross and was therefore given an extra loaf of white bread. Father was also given a parcel from the Volharding office. When we went to the Central Kitchen, we bumped into Irma and Marion. Coby and I have received a request from the I.K.B to come for a medical examination. Cor and Stiny have been inoculated for the 2nd time.
Friday 27
Coby and I didn’t go to school because we had to attend the I.K.B’s medical at
Heelsumstraat 59 at 10.15 am. At 4 o’clock in the afternoon we had soup from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father had to do a bread delivery for the Red Cross and was therefore given an extra loaf of white bread. He also got a loaf of white bread for preparing onions. We received 400 gram of white bread from the Swedish Red Cross, 125 gram margarine, 200 for Coby, 250 gram porridge oats and 250 grams extra cheese.
Saturday 28
Irma’s birthday. We went to Irma at half past 2 till 5 o’clock and gave her flowers. In the evening we had chick pea-vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I bought a brooch for Mother’s birthday I bought a book ‘Abridged History of Indonesia to the arrival of the Dutch’. I gave Aunt Co flowers. Rumours of peace. My watch has been repaired.
Sunday 29
I’ve been to church again. Frans was also at the altar. In the evening we had soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. In the afternoon, food parcels were dropped over Ypenburg and Valkenburg by Avro Lancaster bombers. Cor and I stood on Capitol Cinema’s roof. Rumours of peace (perhaps 1 May).
Monday 30
I’ve been to school again. Elly is ill (van Spanje). In the evening we had buttermilk porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. In the afternoon, food parcels were dropped over Ypenburg and Valkenburg airfields Den Deyl, Duindigt etc. by Avro Lancaster bombers, parcels consisting of tea, egg (in powder form), bacon, dried meat, margarine, chocolate bars, cacao, cheese, wheat flour, sugar, beans etc.
Adolf Hitler “dood” (dead). “Under “dood” was a fierce stripe, probably it meant a great relief to Han. Coby’s Note: I am sure to everybody else.
Tuesday 1 May
Mother’s birthday. In the evening we had lentil soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
For a few days some food parcels were from the Swiss Red Cross. In the mornings and afternoons food parcels with provisions were dropped on the aforementioned places by respectively Boeing Fortress and Avro Lancasters. Bob, Jo and Pastor have been. I gave mother the brooch and Coby a small “kleedje” (tablecloth or something). Father, Coby and I gave mother flowers. Big celebrations in The Hague.
Wednesday 2 May
In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Uncle Luuk was admitted to the hospital at the Zuidwal. Eating at the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan has been postponed to Thursday 3 May 1945. Mother visited uncle Luuk. In the afternoon food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancasters. Coby and I received food from the I.K.B. District Office in the Heelsumstraat 6 x per week. Father has again accompanied the Red Cross delivering bread and has therefore received 1 extra loaf of bread.
Thursday 3
No confirmation classes. Father delivered bread for the Red Cross and received 1 extra loaf of white bread. In the evening we had rye porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I fetched 10 Kg potatoes for f5,00 and half a loaf of Swedish white bread for uncle Luuk at the tax office. From today, no further bread will be baked. Mother fetched some of uncle Luuk’s things from Mrs Hulscher in the morning. Coby and I have had some soup from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. In the afternoon, Coby and I were again examined in the Heelsumstraat. In the afternoon food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancasters.
Friday 4
In the evening, we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross and received 2 white loaves. We received 400 grams of white bread from the Swedish Red Cross. In the afternoon food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancaster bombers. In the afternoon I went with Irma to Westland. Elly van Spanje is well again. In the morning I went to the Tax Office to say that uncle Luuk has been admitted to hospital at the Zuidwal. (? was already admitted on 2 May?)
Capitulation from W.W. (must have been west) Germany, Denmark and Holland has been announced.
Saturday 5
In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. At 8 o’clock this morning, the capitulation went into effect. Gerard (son of uncle Luuk) came from visiting uncle Luuk. Mother and I have been to Binnenhof to fetch provisions for uncle Luuk. Mother went to uncle Luuk in the afternoon. In the morning food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancasters and Boeing Fortresses. On the meat coupon one can get dried meat which has been dropped by the English. Coby has fetched tickets from the I.K.B.
Note: “Binnenhof” and “Buitenhof” in the middle of The Hague are government buildings.
Sunday 6 May
Tonny’s birthday. Cor has been to church again for the first time. Frans was also there. We had rye porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother, father and Coby have gone to visit Jo and Tonny. Aunt Co and Stien have been to uncle Luuk. This afternoon at 4 o’clock the first Allied Troops crossed the front line. At 12 noon the red white and blue flag was hoisted on the Haagse Toren. (Tower). All N.S.B. members (N.S.B = Nationaal Socialistische Beweging) (The National Socialist Movement) were picked up. Irma, Elly, Stien, Cor, Han and Coby went into town this evening.
Monday 7 May
In the evening we had thick pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I also had thick porridge in “Vlera” from the I.K.B. In the morning and the afternoon, food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancasters and Boeing Fortress bombers. N.S.B. members are still being picked up. Mother has been to uncle Luuk. She has also been to Mrs Hulscher with Coby to fetch uncle Luuk’s possessions).
Tuesday 8
Dankstond (Thanksgiving) in all churches in Great The Hague (Groot-Den-Haag). No service in our church. In the evening we had lentil soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Uncle Luuk died at a quarter to six in the morning. Mother and aunt Co have gone across. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross and received 1 extra loaf of bread. In the afternoon, food parcels were dropped on the aforementioned places by Avro Lancaster bombers. Coby and I received two meal coupons from the I.K.B. on the occasion of the liberation. The Princess Irene Brigade entered The Hague at 7 o’clock in the evening.
Wednesday 9
Coby fetched two meal coupons for father and mother, on the occasion of the liberation. In the evening, we had rye porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father and mother had pea soup from the I.K.B. Coby had broad bean soup. I had buttermilk porridge. Today no food from the butcher in the Nunspeetlaan. Postponed till next week. We received 400 gram government bread from the Red Cross, Coby 500 grams grain products and 250 gram rice.
Thursday 10
No confirmation classes. 10 o’clock Holy Communion Service. Coby and I have been to church. Frans was also there. We had pea-lentil soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan and kapucijner soup. Father, mother, Coby and I had rye porridge from the I.K.B. In the future, air drops of food supplies will no longer be done.
Friday 11
I have been standing all day with father at the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat and have eaten myself silly on cream cakes. Coby is ill, she’s in bed. In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Father and mother had buttermilk porridge from the I.K.B. Coby and I broad bean soup. From now on, we will only receive “plaatbrood”. (Coby – note: Han crossed this last sentence out).
Saturday 12
In the evening, we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rye porridge from the I.K.B. We received food provisions and articles from the Allied Forces, which were laid down by the 1st distribution of Allied Forces food provisions under insert II.
Sunday 13
Mother’s Day. We had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I haven’t been to church due to diarrhoea. Gerard and Kiek (sons of uncle Luuk) came this morning.
J. Parree and Frans de Winter were at the altar. Coby has recovered. Aunt Co is better again. Stien has diarrhoea.
Monday 14
Anniversary of aunt Co and uncle Ben’s bridal days. Uncle Luuk was buried at Nieuw Eik and Duinen this morning. We all had to go to school. Coby went on her own. I went to the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat. In the evening we had vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rye porridge from the I.K.B. For allied food provisions see insert II. (No inserts 1 and 2 were there).
Tuesday 15
In the evening, we had lentil soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had broad bean soup from the I.K.B. In the afternoon I fetched the circulars at the “Haagse Courant” for father. For Allied food provisions see insert II. I delivered the circulars with father in the evening.
Wednesday 16
In the evening we had thin rye porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had thick pea soup from the I.K.B. Coby and I had vegetable and pea soup from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan. We went to school for a short while but were turned back because the school had to be cleaned. I dropped into the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat for Allied provisions, see the I.K.B’s insert II, everybody got 3 fondants.
Thursday 17
No confirmation classes. Mother and I took uncle Luuk’s things (papers?) to the Tax Office this morning. I then continued to the office and then to the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat. For Allied provisions see Insert II. Uncle Luuk’s Gerard has been. In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan We each got 3 fondants from the I.K.B.
Friday 18
In the evening, we had runner beans with white bean stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had ?? from the I.K.B. Mother again fetched I.K.B. coupons for us in Salvatori. We went to school today.
Saturday 19
In the evening, we had runner beans with white bean stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had brown bean soup from the I.K.B. I spent the whole day at the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat. See Insert II for Allied provisions. Holiday.
Notes: This week, stamps issue 1940 depicting the Queen have become valid again. From now on, everything which was distributed before, free of charge has to be paid for now
1ste Pinkersterdag Whit Sunday20
Holiday. In the evening we had purslane and endive stew. Mother, Father, Coby Cor and I have been to church. Frans de W. and Joop P. were there as well. We went for a walk in the afternoon and had a drink in a café on the Laan van Eik en Duinen. Food from the Central Kitchen was sour. (gone off).
2de Pinkersterdag Whit Monday 21
Holiday. Cor was “gevormd” (confirmed) a year ago. In the evening we had endive, vegetable and pea stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had thick wheat porridge from the I.K.B in “Vlera”. The Canadian Victory Parade which should have taken place this week, has been called off. The football match with the Canadians that Cor and I would have gone to is postponed because of the parade.
Together, we had 2 little fondants and 2 vitamins from the I.K.B
Tuesday 22
In the evening we had a thin porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. In the afternoon and evening, we had pea soup and 4 vitamin pralines together from the I.K.B.
I spent the whole day in the Volharding Branch Office in the Terletstraat. I saw Tom van Zijdervelt. Holiday.
Meeting.
Wednesday 23
In the evening we had pea soup stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. From the I.K.B, we had a thin pea soup, 4 oranges and 4 vitamins together. Food from the butcher’s in the Nunspeetlaan has been discontinued. We went back to school.
Thursday 24
No confirmation classes. We went to school. In the evening we had a thin vegetable soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had pea soup and 2 oranges and 2 vitamins each. We received a letter from aunt To. Cox had to deliver 4 letters for Mr Donia and myself 1. Coby took them all. No food at “Vlera”.
Friday 25
Anneke de Beer’s birthday. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had vegetable soup and 2 vitamins each from the I.K.B. We have been to school. Coby and I fetched coupons from the I.K.B. I got another letter from Mr Donia and Coby delivered it. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross and got 1 white loaf and one government loaf.
Saturday 26
In the evening we had ___??_______ from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had
?? from he I.K.B. Charles arrived in the evening at 11 o’clock.
Sunday 27
*Rob Ruis and Mr Broekhuisen’s (teacher) birthdays. We had ?? from the Central Kitchen. Charles and I have been to church. Instead of being at the altar I sat with Charles in church because I had diarrhoea. Cor and Frans were at the altar.
*Passed away, see Exercise book 1) 14 April 1945.
Monday 28
Coby and I have not been to school or the I.K.B. Liberation party on the Apeldoornselaan. Coby and I joined in the parade dressed up as farmer and his wife. Stien was wearing a dress which had : flower bulbs, sugar beets, celery and labels of all sorts of surrogate packaging sewn onto it. Cor was wearing a suit which had all the English food tins sewn onto it. We had ?? from the Central kitchen in the Gaslaan. Anneke de Beer has been. I returned home at about 10 o’clock in the evening as I became unwell. The others continued till about 12 o’clock. Elly van Spanje also joined us till about 10 o’clock. Irma is ill.
Tuesday 29
In the evening we had red beetroot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had pea soup and only 1 tin of rice and 2 tins green peas from the I.K.B. as Coby had lost her coupon. Coby is ill, she’s in bed.
Wednesday 30
Irma, Han and Coby have been to school again. Elly van Spanje and Mrs van Spanje are ill. We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge and lettuce stew from the I.K.B. Charles left at about 7 o’clock in the morning. We commemorated Peace at school in the afternoon. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross and got 1 extra white loaf. Stien and Cor have won first prize and the honorary prize at the liberation party, a small standard lamp and half a pound of sugar. Coby and I have the 6th prize, a photo album with corners.
Thursday 31
Miep’s birthday. Uncle Bernard, mother and Coby have been to Miep’s. Father had to deliver bread for the Red Cross and got 1 extra white loaf. In the evening we had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. The I.K.B had sour sugar beets with “kroten” (red beetroot) stew in Salvatori. Coby and I didn’t go there. We had porridge from the I.K.B.
Friday 1 June
School Sports Day last year. In the evening, we had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had brown bean soup from the I.K.B. Kiek has been.
Saturday 2
Stamp Exhibition in Pulchri Studio last year. (Perforated stamps in aid of the Red Cross). In the evening we had tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had pea soup from the I.K.B. Father is ill, he’s in bed. Gerard has been.
Sunday 3
Stamp Exhibition in Pulchri Studio last year. (Perforated stamps in aid of the Red Cross). In the evening we had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We received an extra portion in every pan. Father is still ill; he’s still in bed. In the evening, mother, Coby and I went to the liberation party in the Delftselaan which was electrically illuminated.
Monday 4
Aunt Co’s and uncle Ben’s 21st wedding anniversary. Mother gave aunt Co a bunch of Irises. In the evening we had buttermilk porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Food from the I.K.B. was declared not fit for consumption. A Fair in the Nunspeetlaan. Liberation party in the Lunterenstraat. Uncle Chiel returned at 8.30 in the evening released as a Prisoner of War. Father is well again.
Tuesday 5
Last year Rome fell. A Fair is in the Nunspeetlaan. In the evening we had red beetroot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had eiermeelpap (dried egg powder porridge) from the I.K.B.
Wednesday 6
Invasion of France last year (Le Havre etc). Youth concert last year. We had tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had dried egg powder porridge from the I.K.B. All of us went to uncle Chiel in the evening. Liberation party on the Dierenselaan which is electrically illuminated.
Thursday 7
No confirmation classes. Big demonstration by new Canadian troops with heavy weapons on the renbaan (race-course) Duindigt in the afternoon from 1 – 4 o’clock. Liberation party on the Dierenselaan. We had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had eiermeel pap (dried egg powder porridge) from the I.K.B.
Friday 8
In the evening, we had chickpea stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rye porridge from the I.K.B. Big demonstration by new Canadian troops with heavy weapons on the renbaan Duindigt in the afternoon from 1 – 4 o’clock. Liberation party on the Dierenselaan.
Saturday 9
In the evening, we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Liberation party at the Dierenselaan, Noorderbeekdwarsstraat, Fultonstraat, Newtonstraat and Weimarstraat. We had rye porridge from the I.K.B.
Sunday 10
In the evening we had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Church Service for the English in the morning at 7.30am. (I didn’t go because I didn’t know about it), normal Service at 10 o’clock. Service for the English at 6.45 o’clock in the evening. I did go to this one.
Monday 11
In the evening, we had biscuit porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. In the evening Cor and I went to a fancy dress football match at the sports field in the Gaslaan. Uncle Gerard, aunt Lena and Joop returned home. Hooray!!!!, the tram is back in action. I treated Irma, Elly and Coby to a tram ride. Somebody on the tram gave me an English cigarette.
Notes: I got 2 cigarettes from Cor’s girlfriend and gave Father one of them. I got a new watch chain from Father. Father was on guard duty at the Volharding building from 6 o’clock in the evening till 5 o’clock in the morning. He doesn’t have to work tomorrow.
Tuesday 12
In the evening, we had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge and 2 vitamins each from the I.K.B. In the morning, I fetched buttermilk porridge for father from the Volharding. Cor received news that he is to go to Amersfoort*. He’s been to Pastor and aunt Riek. In the morning, mother went to the doctor’s for a skin test (eczema) and after that she went to the evacuation office in the Trompstraat. Liberation party on the Loosduinseweg (Groenestraat – Mackaystraat). Some people have gas and electricity.
*Amersfoort Old-Catholic Seminary: training for priesthood.
Wednesday 13
In the evening, we had lentil soup and 3 vitamins each from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Cor left at about 8 o’clock in the morning on Stien’s bike. Mother filled in and delivered the form from the evacuation office. I got cigarettes from Cor’s girlfriend and I gave one to father. In the evening mother, Coby and Elly went to the liberation party on the Weimarstraat. We got home at 11.30. Party also on the La Reyweg.
Thursday 14
No confirmation classes. King Leopold of Belgium was taken to Germany last year. In the evening, we had beetroots from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge and 2 vitamins each from the I.K.B. Liberation party on the Beeklaan and the Loosduinseweg. Uncle Luuk’s Gerard has been. Beb gave me 4 cigarettes. (Note Coby: Han had crossed this last sentence out: probably belonged to Friday 15).
Friday 15
We had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge and 2 vitamins and 2 small bottles of tomato juice each from the I.K.B. I got 4 cigarettes from Beb.
Saturday 16
Exhibition of works by Jan v. Heel in the Zeestraat 63, in the afternoon at 3 o’clock. We had lentil soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge and 2 vitamins each from the I.K.B. Food at “Vlera” was declared unfit for consumption and after that we got half a pound of cheese.
(Jan van Heel, well known artist of paintings and art teacher).
Sunday 17
My bike was stolen last year. We had carrot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Mother, Coby and I went to church. Frans was also at the altar.
Monday 18
We had biscuit porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge from the I.K.B. Liberation party on the field of the Gaslaan.
Tuesday 19
Uncle Bernard has gone fishing again for the first time. In the evening we had carrots from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rice flour porridge from the I.K.B. Liberation party on the field of the Gaslaan. There’s been some thunder.
Wednesday 20
In the evening we had lentil-tomato soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rice flour porridge from the I.K.B. Liberation parties on the Princegracht and the Lijnbaan. I got 18 ounces of biscuit coupons and one bread coupon from Web. Father sold the biscuit coupons to aunt Co for f 7,00.
Thursday 21
No confirmation classes. Liberation party on the Loosduinseweg. Start of the summer. We had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rice flour porridge from the I.K.B. We went home on the tram.
Friday 22
Liberation party on the Loosduinseweg. We had green pea stew from the Cenetral Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had semolina porridge from the I.K.B. We went home on the tram. The majority of Canadians have gone.
Saturday 23
Bob’s birthday. Liberation party on the Loosduinseweg. We had sour porridge (gone off) from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rice flour porridge from the I.K.B.
Sunday 24
In the evening we had cauliflower stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I went to church on my own in the morning. Frans was also there. Mother, father + Coby went to Bob in the afternoon. Church of England 6.30 p.m. Evensong.
Monday 25
The old potatoes are without coupon. In the evening we had biscuit porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had rice flour porridge from the I.K.B. Father, mother, Coby, aunt Co (later), uncle Bernard + Stiny and I went to aunt Lena because Joop (her son) has come home. Father bought cigarette-paper from uncle Bernard.
Tuesday 26
We had porridge oats from the I.K.B. We had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I went to the party in the Gallileistraat. Also party on the Valkenboslaan.
Wednesday 27
In the evening, we had pea-tomato stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge oats and 2 vitamins and a letter each stating that this week was the I.K.B.’s last time Aunt Jeanne’s birthday. I went to the party in the Gallileistraat and heard the Queen’s speech. Parties also on the Valkenboslaan + the Weimarstraat.
Thursday 28
No confirmation classes. Aunt Co left on the boat to Haarlem at around 7.30 this morning. She’s going to aunt To. In the evening we had carrot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We had porridge + 2 vitamins each from the I.K.B.
Friday 29
Prince Bernard’s birthday. We had the afternoon off school. Irma, Elly, Coby + I saw the Prince. In the evening we had a thin tomato soup from the Central Kitchen. I was given coupons for 18 ounces of biscuits from Thea. Liberation party in the Noorderbeekstraat.
Saturday 30
Liberation party in the Noorderbeekstraat. Thea gave me 2 bread coupons. We had porridge + 2 vitamins each for the last time from the I.K.B. In the evening from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan……… (note Co: Han suddenly stops here)
Sunday 1 July
Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion. 6.30 p.m. Evensong. I went to this. Miss Kruller (teacher in History and English) was there in the evening. Father went with me in the morning. In the evening we had carrot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Monday 2
Coby and I have stayed over for the first time. (probably in the house we started to live in after leaving the cellar under the café restaurant). Father is on holiday. J.M. Kruller has given me extra English lessons and she lent me a book. Aunt Co arrived home in the afternoon. We had rye flour porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Tuesday 3
In the evening we had sour (gone off) porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Wednesday 4
In the evening we had thick pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. We again stayed over. In the afternoon we went home by tram. I gave Miss Kruller coupons for 1800 gram biscuits + Coby a coupon for 300 gram.
Thursday 5
No confirmation classes. In the morning mother and father left for aunt To on the 9 o’clock boat. I took them to the boat. In the evening we had Savoy cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I went to the Pulchri Studio in the afternoon (Exhibition B.Z.P.C. + X.L.M).? Coby and I went to Irma in the evening.
Friday 6
The Queen entered The Hague. The Palace has been decorated for the party. There is no school. In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I helped family van Spanje to move house. Ship workers have started working again in Rotterdam. No school.
Saturday 7
Rieka’s birthday. “Take care of birds”, J.v.d. Berg Apeldoornselaan f6,50. Gedempte Burgwal between 5 and 6 o’clock. In the evening we had carrot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I got 3 biscuit coupons from Beb. I sold them to aunt Co for f 20.
Note Coby: “Take care of Birds” was probably a book.
Notes: Barber f 0,35, Bathhouse f 0.15, Newspaper f 0,10, Organ-grinder f 0,05,
Exhibition f 0.25.
Sunday 8
In the evening we had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I tried to go to Irma but we didn’t manage to get through the control-post. Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion at 6.30 p.m. Evensong. Nico came over in the afternoon.
Monday 9
Father’s birthday. In the evening we had carrot soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Jo is courting. Coby and I stayed over again. Father and mother returned home at about 3.30 in the afternoon. Uncle Gerard, aunt Lena, Miep and Riek came over.
Tuesday 10
We had carrot stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Liberation party in *Westeinde. Aunt Lien arrived at ours with daughter Toos (Tootje) (pronounce ToasToasje)(Toatje) at around 2.30 in the afternoon. Hooray, we got electric light at about 3.30 this afternoon.
*Westeinde is a street in the town centre.
Wednesday 11
We had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. Coby and I stayed over again.
Thursday 12
No lessons. Anniversary of Mother’s and Father’s bruidsdagen. (bridal days). Aunt Lien and Tootje left in the morning on the 9 o’clock boat. In the evening we had “spitskool” sweetheart cabbage) stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Friday 13
Tante Lien and Tootje returned home at around 3.30 in the afternoon due to many explosions in Driehuis. (village near IJmuiden. Prince Bernhard in The Hague. Irene Brigade parade. In the evening we had sweetheart stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan. I got 3 biscuit coupons from Thea.
Saturday 14
Ans’ birthday. Forgotten
Sunday 15
Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion. 6.30 p.m. Evensong. In the evening we had sweetheart cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Monday 16
Forgotten
Tuesday 17
Be at school at 9.30. Forgotten
Wednesday 18
In the evening we had buttermilk porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Thursday 19
No confirmation classes. In the evening we had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gaslaan.
Friday 20
School for the last time. In the evenings we had __??__ from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Miss Kruller has left for England.
Saturday 21
Holiday. Family Ruis dropped in this week for a short while. Aunt Lien made swimming trunks.
Notes:
Jesu (jiesoe) (Dutch Pronunciation)
Jesus (djiesus) ( the same as above )
Sunday 22
Aunt Co and uncle Ben’s 25 year wedding anniversary celebrated last year. Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion 6.30 p.m Evensong. In the evening we had sweetheart cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Monday 23
Holiday. In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. I went to Bep Conradi’s. Hoera (Hooray), we’ve had gas again for 2 ½ hours.
Tuesday 24
Holiday. To be at school at 09.30. Coby, Irma, Elly and I are all “over” (past to the next class). In the evening we had sweetheart stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Wednesday 25
Holiday. In the evening we had a thin endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Aunt Lien + Tootje + Stiny have left for Arnhem “liften”. (hitch-hiking). I took them to Voorburg. Coby and I swam in the Regentes. (Public swimming-pool).
Thursday 26
Holiday. In the evening we had flour porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Mother, Coby and I went to Mrs Ruis in the evening. I fetched a permit for Mother.
Friday 27
Holiday. Mother and father’s wedding anniversary. Aunt Co, Coby and I gave them flowers. We had buttermilk porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. I went to Mr Lijnstok and to the Zuiderpark in the afternoon.
Saturday 28
Holiday. Cor came home at half past 12. Aunt Co and uncle Bernard have gone to aunt To. To fetch Irma before 11 o’clock. In the evening we had potatoes and meat from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Sunday 29
Elly’s birthday. Holiday. 8 a.m. Church of England. Holy Communion Service at 6.30 p.m. Evensong. In the evening we had sweetheart cabbage, brown bean and red cabbage stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Monday 30
Holiday. 7 o’clock this afternoon opening of the Zuiderpark swimmingpool. At 4.45 mother went to the evacuation office. I took her there. In the evening we had bean soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Tuesday 31
Holiday. In the evening we had stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Irma has been.
Wednesday August 1
I swam in the Zuiderpark pool. American Airforce 38th anniversary. Concert on the Plaats. (Square in town). In the evening we had biscuit porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Thursday 2
No confirmation classes. We had buttermilk porridge from the Cental Kichen in the Gheinstraat. Cor, Bep and I went to “Snip en Snap” (well known cabaret/revue show) in the afternoon. Annie came by car. She was brought by a nurse.
Friday 3
In the evening we had biscuit porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Elly van Spanje came. She invited Coby to come over this coming Sunday.
Saturday 4
Holiday. Lissone-Lindeman. (well known Travel Agency). Train to Woerden, by bike what time?
Sunday 5
Holiday. English Church only at 6.30 p.m. Evensong.
Monday 6
Coby’s birthday. Holiday. K.N.A.C. (Koninklijke Nederlandse Automobile Club).1 received 1 list of traffic regulations in English + 2 long lists of technical traffic terms. Police station Alexanderveldhoek Laan Copes – caught 2 fish. Uncle Bernard has gone fishing.
Tuesday 7
Holiday. I left at 9 o’clock in the morning with Cor to Driehuis and arrived at aunt To at
3 o’clock.
Wednesday 8
Holiday.
Thursday 9
Holiday.
Friday 10
Holiday. We should have gone to The Hague again but due to the bad weather we decided to leave tomorrow. Uncle Siem came home for an hour under military escort.
Saturday 11
Holiday. We walked to Haarlem and and then took the tram to The Hague. We returned home at around 1 o’clock. In the evening we had sweet porridge from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Sunday 12
Holiday. English Church 8 a.m. Holy Communion Service, 6.30 p.m. Evensong. In the evening we had big bean stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Monday 13
Holiday. Exhibition of the The Hague school in Kunsthandel Liernur, Zeestraat. In the evening we had (Note Coby: Han didn’t finish his sentence here) …….. from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. I fetched a permit for Uncle Ben and myself. I had applied for a fishing permit for uncle Bernard and myself at the old Town Hall. I went to the
R.J. Schimmelpennincklaan for a domiciliary permit for Annie.
Tuesday 14
Holiday. Aunt Lena’s Joop’s birthday. Father and I went round to Joop in the evening. In the morning mother and Coby left on the 11.05 train to Driehuis. In the evening we had pea soup from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat.
Ascension Day of the Virgin Mary Wednesday 15
Holiday. Japan has capitulated. Open air exhibition of young artists’ works in the Lange Vijverberg in town with the Government buildings. Holy Service at half past ten. In the evening we had endive stew from the Central Kitchen in the Gheinstraat. Hoera. (Hooray). Japan has capitulated. World peace.
Thursday 16
No confirmation classes. Holiday. Daily VI exhibition in Amicitia (theatre exhibition hall in town), daily from 10 – 10 o’clock, (10am - 10pm), 50 cent per person. Uncle Bernard has to go to the electricity office. Annie has to go to pastor van Tol.
National Holiday.
Friday 17
Holiday. Local domiciliary office Trompstraat open 9 – 2 o’clock. 8.30 from The Hague, 4.00 from Rotterdam.
Saturday 18
Uncle Henk’s (neighbour) birthday. Holiday
Sunday 19
Holiday.
Monday 20
Holiday. R.A.T. Exhibition in the Bijenkorf (large department store)
Tuesday 21
Holiday.
Wednesday 22
Holiday. Mother, Coby and I left on the 12.07 train to Arnhem. We arrived at aunt Lien at around 5.30.
Thursday 23
Invasion of France (Spanish border) last year. Holiday. No confirmation classes.
Friday 24
Holiday.
Saturday 25
Holiday.
Sunday 26
Holiday. Mother, Han, Coby, Nico and To have been to Mientje.
Monday 27
Holiday. Mother Coby and I left on the 11.18 train for The Hague and returned home at 6.15.
Tuesday 28
I went to the “Spergebied” and our house is still standing empty.
Wednesday 29
Holiday. I’ve been fishing in the Soestdijksekade and didn’t catch anything.
Thursday 30
Holiday. No confirmation classes.
Friday 31
Holiday. Queen’s birthday. We received a telegram from Nico to say that he and Mientje are not coming. Aunt Lien has diphtheria.
Saturday 1 September
Holiday.
Notes: Cor has to bring along a package from Mr Bruggeman for the President. (of the Seminary).
Sunday 2
Finland capitulated last year. Holiday. Hoera (Hooray), we’re no longer eating from the Central Kitchen. Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion. Service. 6.30 Evensong.
Monday 3
School Day.
Tuesday 4
No absentees.
Wednesday 5 up to Saturday 8 nothing except Thursday 6 – No confirmation classes.
Sunday 9
Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion 6.30 p.m. Evensong.
(Coby note): nothing on Monday 10
Tuesday 11
To fetch tickets for R.A.F. demonstration at the station.
Wednesday 12
Johanna for Tom.
Thursday 13
No confirmation classes.
Friday 14
Tootje’s birthday. I sent To a card.
Saturday 15
Nico’s birthday. New stamp series. 9 stamps f5,50. Royal Air Force display at Ypenburg. I went with Jaap. I sent Nico a letter in English.
Sunday 16
Maastricht fell last year. The clocks are being put back an hour. 8am Holy Communion Service. Church of England. 6.30. p.m. Evensong.
Monday 17
Aunt Riek’s Jo’s birthday. Last year the English landed at Nijmegen, Tilburg and Eindhoven.
Tuesday 18
Last year the Dutch Railways went on strike + Valkenswaard fell. Landings also at Arnhem.
Wednesday 19
Eindhoven fell last year.
Thursday 20
Charles’ birthday. Sittard fell last year. I sent Charles a letter.
Friday 21
We received 40 English cigarettes at f1,10 per packet of 20.
Saturday 22
Nijmegen fell last year. 2 hours confirmation classes.
Sunday 23
Stolberg fell last year. English Church, 8 a.m. Holy Communion. 6.30 p.m. Evensong. We got a small package from the church. Gift from the Swiss “geloofsgenoten” (members of the Old Catholic church in Switzerland).
Monday 24
Weert fell last year. Free from school due to moving. I helped out.
Tuesday 25
Deurne fell last year. Free due to the move. I helped out.
Wednesday 26
Free due to the move. I helped out.
Thursday 27
Eddy Veldink’s birthday. To be at school at 10 o’clock. Official opening. Rest of day off.
Friday 28
Elst fell last year. Free for move, I helped out.
Saturday 29
Port of Calais fell last year. Confirmation lessons for 2 hours, lesson 19. Prayer. Free for move. I helped out.
Sunday 30
The Haagse Courant (The Hague Newspaper) was blown up last year. English Church, 8am, Holy Communion Service, 6.30 pm. Evensong.
Monday 1 October
Calais fell last year. Return to school for the first time.
Tuesday 2 October
Note Coby: nothing.
Wednesday 3
Corrie, Willy, Corri, Jopi, Rien, Wies, Martha, Grada, Joop, Marius, Maartje, Olga, Mallée, Cor, Fried, Joop, Han, Dick, Maarten, Benno, Cecil.
Thursday 4
The “zaalkachel” (the stove from the café) was placed in our lounge last year. I have asked Mr Donia if I can do the B exam. He was OK with this. There’s a letter on its way to the Trompstraat.
Friday 5
Putte, Kapelle, Witmansdank and Stabroek fell last year. I did my first work in the B Class.
Saturday 6
Alphen fell last year. 2 hours of confirmation classes, lesson 19. Prayers. Eisenhower visited The Hague and Amsterdam.
Sunday 7
Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion 6.30 p.m. Evensong.
Monday 8
Uncle Charles’ s birthday.
Tuesday 9
Note Coby : nothing
Wednesday 10
Uncle Luuk’s birthday. Corinth fell last year.
Thursday 11
Note Coby: nothing
Friday 12
No more gas last year. Food from the Central Kitchen.
Saturday 13
2 hours of confirmation lessons, learn lesson 20. Aunt Co has gone to Cor. English baby’s christening.
Sunday 14
Cor’s birthday. Venraay fell last year. Holy Communion Service, Church of England 8 a.m. Evensong 6.30 p.m. Harvest – home.
Monday 15
Aunt Co has returned from Cor.
Tuesday 16
Woensdrecht fell last year. An English mariner marries at 3 o’colock in the afternoon.
Wednesday 17, Thursday 18, Friday 19
(note Coby: nothing)
Saturday 20
Belgrade, Aken, Oostburg, Aardenburg fell last year. Confirmation classes at 2.15pm, lesson 10 plus half 21)
Sunday 21
Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion, 6.30 p.m. Evensong.
Monday 22
Breskens Dodewaard and Opheusden fell last year. Father is on holiday
Tuesday 23
Aunt To’s birthday. Canadian soldier’s wedding at 3 o’clock. Mother, father and aunt Co have gone to Aunt To. Father is on holiday.
Wednesday 24
St. Michielsgestel fell last year and Cor came home. Father is on holiday. Mother, father and aunt Co have returned.
Thursday 25
Aunt Riek’s birthday. Best, Boxtel, Esende, half of Den Bosch fell last year. Father is on holiday.
Friday 26
Father on holiday. 8 p.m. Organ music in he Remonstrantse Church of the Netherland England Society. I went there with Irma and Willy v. Delft.
Saturday 27
Den Bosch fell last year. 2.15 hour confirmation classes, lesson 21. Father is on holiday.
Sunday 28
Tilburg and Berg op Zoom fell last year. Handelingen (The Acts of the Apostles). Church of England 8 a.m. Holy Communion Service, 6.30 pm Evensong. The clergyman from before the war, was in the church too.
Monday 29
Goesen and Rosendaal fell last year. (Perhaps we are going to Hamlet, Shakespeare)
All Saints Thursday, 1 November
Holiday. 10 a.m. Holy Communion Service. Coby and I went to church. Frans was also at the altar. 8.30 am. All Saints of the Church of England.
All Souls, Friday 2
Holiday. 10 a.m. Holy Communion Service.
Saturday 3
The whole of Belgium was liberated last year. Holiday. No confirmation class. “Victor en de Gouden Bloem” (Victor and the Golden Flower). Elly van Spanje plays a role in this.
Sunday 4
Steenbergen, Terheide and Re Kreek fell last year. Confirmation English Church at ..?.. p.m. Holy Communion at 8 a.m., Bishop of Dover, Bishop of Deventer, Pastor Roeseling, Harderwijk, Wijker and v. Buren, Joop, Frans and I, v.d. Leest, + English altar boys: Hartup, Williams + 3 reserve,
Monday 5
Hens Veldink’s birthday. Vlissingen fell last year.
Tuesday 6
Baptism at 2 p.m.
Wednesday 7
Aunt Co’s birthday. We had to hand in our clothes last year. Wedding at 12.45 a.m.
Thursday 8 and Friday 9
nothing.
Saturday 10
Last year, dogs had to be inspected by the Germans. Confirmation class at 2.15 pm.
Lessons 20 and 21.
Sunday 11
“Nieuwe kerk” (name of big church in centre of The Hague), made use of for Services.
Monday 12 to Thursday 15
Nothing.
Friday 16
“Padvinderij adressen” (Scout Movement addresses).
I have been to the Youth Concert at 7.30pm in “Gebouw van Kunsten and Wetenschappen”, (Centrum of Art and Science), a well known theatre in The Hague, given by the Residential Orchestra.
Saturday 17
Horn fell last year. Confirmation classes, lesson 24, at 2.15pm.
Sunday 18
Nothing.
Monday 19
We had light for the last time last year.
Tuesday 20
Last year men between the age of 17 and 40 were taken away by the Germans.
Wednesday 21
Nothing.
Thursday 22
Food stores were looted last year.
Friday 23
Nothing.
Saturday 24
Confirmation classes at 1.45pm. Lesson 24. The priest would speak about Mattheus.
Wednesday28
Aunt Lien’s birthday
Thursday 29 to 2 December inclusive
Nothing.
Monday 3 December
Uncle Gerard’s birthday.
Tuesday 4
Nothing
Wednesday 5
Charles arrived on his bike last year.
Thursday 6 and Friday 7
Nothing.
Saturday 8
Confirmation classes at 2.15pm. Wedding+ 3 questions of the next lesson.
Sunday 9
Charles went to Amsterdam last year. There was razzia on the men in Delft a year ago.
Monday 10
Would you be so kind to send me your extensive brochure about “Free Speech, Logical Thinking and Practical Art of Living?” (Vrij spreken, logisch denken en practische levenskunst). My address is : Name, street. Send with 15 cent stamp to Dalmeyer’s Courses, Koninginneweg 182, Dept E245, Amsterdam – Z.
Wednesday 12
Nothing.
Thursday 13
Pastor Roeseling and my birthday’s.
Friday 14 to Sunday 16 inclusive.
Nothing.
Monday 17
Aunt Dien’s birthday.
Tuesday 18
Stiny’s birthday.
Wednesday 19 to Monday 24 inclusive.
Nothing.
Christmas Day Tuesday 25
Mrs Veldink’s birthday.
Nothing further to report other than New Year’s Eve, New Year and “Drie Koningen”
(Celebration of The “Three Kings”).
Various Regiments:
1 Brigade Prinses Irene
1 Royal Berkshire Division, Royal Artillery and Royal Navy
48th Highlanders of Canada
22nd Regiment
Carleton and York Regiment
Dalton H.B.S. Commander : Lieutenant – Colonel J.R. Ensor
Royal Signals Regiment
___________________________________________________________________________Note Coby: then suddenly under this:
Beautiful films: 1. White Angel (Witte Engel) 2. (??)
R.E.M.E – Royal Electric Mechanical Engineers.
Note: at start of the diary : DORA – Harzgebergte
VI’s + V2’s production
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Han's war diary (Brother of Coby van Riel)
Description
An account of the resource
Daily diary from 28 December 1944 to December 25 1945. Mentions air raid warnings, daily what food available from central kitchen, holiday days. visit from relations and other daily activities. Also comments on weather, seeing V-1's fly over and exploding, going fishing, war news, going to church, family health, family events, capitulation of Germany, school, liberation, allied forces activities, national events, and events after end of war. Throughout mentions what poor food eaten each day.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
H van Riel
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944
1945
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Netherlands
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Diary
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Thirty-nine page printed document
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
YvanRielHXXXX1213v1
Conforms To
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Pending review
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
home front
Red Cross
V-1
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/153/1614/AKohlerH170303.2.mp3
d2f0f472887d968b2df90cc90be0d7ad
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Köhler, Helmut
Description
An account of the resource
The collection consists of one oral history interview with Helmut Köhler (b. 1928) who recalls his wartime experience as Luftwaffenhelfer and the breaching of the Eder dam. His recollections cover life in German bombing cities.
The collection was cataloged by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
HZ: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Harry Ziegler. The interviewee is Helmut Köhler. The interviewee, the interview is taking place at Mr Köhler’s home in [omitted] Kassel on the 3 of March 2017. Also Herr Köhler, dann fangen wir mal an.
HK: Ja, also geboren wurde ich am ersten August 1928 und zwar hier in Kassel, im Rotenkreuz Krankenhaus und zwar in der Hansteinstrasse 17 haben wir gewohnt, das ist im Stadteil Wehlheiden, also nicht hier, sondern im Stadteil Wehlheiden. Und da bin ich, hab ich vier, drei Schwestern gehabt, ältere Schwestern, ich bin also nur unter Frauen gross geworden und leider ist mein Vater schon gestorben als ich knapp drei Jahre war, also 1991 ist, 1891 [?] ist schon der Vater gestorben und da war die Mutter mit vier Kindern alleine und der Vater war im Studienrat weil er einen Knieschaden hatte, desshalb ist er im Ersten Weltkrieg kein Soldat geworden, er hat also im Krieg warscheinlich einen Meniskusschaden durch Fussball haben sie gespielt und heute wär das operiert worden, aber damals konnten sie das nicht und desshalb ist er kein Soldat geworden. Und da hatt er hier in Kassel im Realgymnasium eins sein Studium, sein Abitur gemacht und hatt dann auch studiert in Marburg und zwar Geschichte als Hauptfach und hat da auch promoviert. Und a, und, er stammt also aus Gudensberg und die Vorfahren, also seine Eltern und seine Grosseltern und ich weiss nicht wie viele Generationen zurück, die hatten das Baugeschäft in Gudensberg, ein Bauunternehmen und meine Mutter, die stammt aus Rellingen bei Pinneberg in Schleswig-Holstein und die haben sich kennengelernt auf einer Hochzeit [laughs] die ein Gudensberger Freund von meinem Vater und einer Pinneberger Freundin von meiner Mutter, da waren sie beide eingeladen, haben sich kennengelernt neh und so. Na ja gut und so bin ich groß geworden praktisch ohne Vater und musste natürlich dann auch zum Gymnasium, Realgymnasium eins, das hieß damals Paul-von-Hindenburg-Schule. Und bin dann eben wie gesagt vier, fünf Jahre ganz normal zur Schule gegangen und am ersten September im ’39, Ostern bin ich dahingekommen, und im ersten September ’39 began der Krieg und da waren mit einem Schlag in einer Woche die ganzen jungen Lehrer weg und da kriegten wir die alten pensionerten Lehrer und dann waren aber zum Teil Lehrer, die mit meinem Vater zusammen an der Schule gelehrt haben [laughs], das war natürlich sehr interessant, ‚ach hier das ist der kleine Heinrich‘, neh, das war ich dann, neh. So und so sind wir dann, haben wir dann Schule gemacht war ganz normal, aber dann eben wiegesagt bis ’43 und dann wurde der Luftkrieg härter, da waren schon mehr mal Angriffe hier und dann kamen wir, als Schüler mussten wir dann Luftschutzwache machen nachts in der Schule, so fünf, sechs mit einem Lehrer zusammen, kriechten wir oben im Dachgeschoss so‘n kleines Zimmerchen mit‘em Feldbett und so haben wir den Krieg kennengelernt und in der Zeit ging dann auch in ’44, neh ’43, ging dann die Edertalsperre kaput, und das haben wir sehr gut beobachtet wie die Riesenwelle Wasser kam neh, na ja gut. [sighs] Jedenfalls, dann die Sommerferien waren rum und dann wurden wir zur Erntehilfe abkommandiert, vier Wochen mussten wir den Bauern helfen, Ernte zu machen und dann kamen wir kurz in die Schule und dann war am 22 Oktober 1943 der grosse Angriff hier. Und den habe ich in der Hansteinstrasse mitgemacht, wo ich geboren wurde. Und das war wirklich grauenhaft, also was ich da in den Keller so erlebt habe, auch die einzelnen Menschen, die da alle sassen, viel ältere Frauen und auch ein Paar Männer, ein hoher Offizier, der hier beim Generalkommando beschäftigt war der hat da immer ein bisschen beruhigt und so, also, es war schon grauenhaft, die eine Frau, die hat nur dauernd gesungen, vor lauter Anstrengung, und die andere die hat nur gebetet und so, und meine Mutter hat ganz still gesessen da, Hände gefaltet und dann gingen durch die detonierten Bomben dann gingen, flogen dann die Kellerfenster rein und dann, also er war grauenhaft. Na ja, und dann ist unser Haus nicht abgebrannt da sondern auch ein Paar Nebenhaüser und da hab ich mitgelöscht so und dann. Ja und dann waren die Schulen in Kassel alle kaputt, so und da haben wir drei Wochen, haben wir uns gefreut, hurrah die Schule brennt, uns gefreut alle, und so nach drei, vier Wochen dann haben wir dann doch bisschen im Zweifel geguckt und sind wir mal zu unser alten Schule gegangen, da war die ein riesen Trümmerhaufen aber die Kellergewölbe die waren noch da und da hatte die Schulsekretärin ihr Büro eingerichtet im Keller und da hatt‘se dann gesagt: ‘Jungs, also, Schule wird’s nicht mehr geben in Kassel’ und so war’s dann auch. Da wurden nach dem grossen Angriff, da sind ja etwa zehntausend Menschen umgekommen, und die ganze Altstadt, alles ein Trümmerhaufen, also es war grauenhaft neh und da sind die ganzen jungen Mütter mit ihren Kindern in einer Woche alle aus Kassel weggeschickt worden, die kamen alle in irgendwelche Lager, die Organisation die war damals schon wirklich klasse neh. So, und wir kamen in ein verlassenes Arbeitsdienstlager nach Bracht, bei Marburg liegt das, das war so alles ein Arbeitsdienstlager mit Baracken und da kamen wir alle rein.
HZ: Ist es Bracht mit B?
HK: Bracht mit B, R, A.
HZ: Ja.
HK: So etwa neh. Ich bin nachher nie wieder da gewesen. So und dann schliefen wir in den Hut, in den grossen Baracken da, zwanzig Leute gingen da glaub ich rein, dann immer zwei Lehrer dabei, die schliefen auf Strohsäcken dann und so und dann am Tag hatten wir da ein bisschen Schule und dann kriegten wir irgendwie die Nachricht das wir zur, als Luftwaffenhelfer eingezogen wurden und wir konnten dann nach Hause also im Dezember 1944, konnten wir, die wir bald eingezogen wurden, schon nach Hause. Und dann am fünften Januar mussten wir antreten Schule [unclear] Schule mit einem Papkarton und da stand da genau drinn was man da alles mitbringen durften, zwei Unterhosen, und ein Paar Socken, alles so was [laughs]. Und dann wurden wir auf’n LKW geladen und da stand da drauf:’Eltern durften nicht da mit’ oder so änlich wurde das da bezeichnet und von meinem Freund Erich, der mit mir grossgeworden ist, die Mutter die war klever, die ist dann hinter uns her gegangen wo wir zum, und wo wir auf der einen Seite von dem LKW standen dann ist sie auf der anderen Seite durch so’n Buschwerk und hat den Fahrer geholt und hat gesagt:’Hören Sie mal, wo fahren Sie den hin, mein Sohn ist hier bei’. Und da hat er gesagt: ‘Nach Heiligenrode’ und da wusste, wusste meine Mutter, hatte gleich Bescheid, wussten die zumindest wo wir Jungen hinkamen. Und da sind wir furchtbar ausgebildet worden, also furchtbar, jeden Tag acht Stunden und das im Januar bei Wind und Wetter und da wurden wir auch fast alle krank und erkältet und alles sowas. Und dann so nach’m viertel Jahr wurden wir eingesetzt und auf, ach so und dann fragte dann der Hauptmann, der Kommandeur, der war im Zivilberuf war der Studienrat und zwar in Matte, Mathematik [laughs] und der fragte dann:’was wollen Sie werden?’ Wir waren ja alle per Sie plötzlich mit fuffzehn Jahren und was wollen sie werden, was wollen Sie [unclear] , und da habe ich gesagt:‘Baumeister, Herr Hauptmann, Baumeister’. ‚Umwertung‘, das war also wo die Zielwege aufgezeichnet wurden, das wurde viel mit Zeichnung das war natürlich was neh. Und ein anderer Klassenkamerad der sagte: ‚ich will Elektroingenieur werden‘, der kam zum Funkmessgerät, das war der Vorgänger vom Radargerät, und so hatten manche schon Vorstellung und die die gar nix wussten die kamen zur Kannonen [laughs] na ja und so wurden wir dann ausgebildet. Und ja und so ging das weiter bis zum, also Januar bis etwa Juni und da wurden wir verlegt von der Flakstellung Heiligenrode zu der Flakstellung Niederkaufungen, da war nämlich ein grosses Heeresdepot und zum Schutz von diesem Depot wurde oben auf dem Berg, das ist heute noch hier, Papierfabrik heisst das, Richtung Kaufungen wenn se da mal [unclear], da waren wir zum Schutz da, so und dann war immer Fliegeralarm aber es passierte nix und da haben wir von der Umwertung, wir mussten auch Sperrfeuer schiessen und das wurde von der Umwertung aus gemacht, das war das Flug-Malsigerät, das war so’n, [unclear] und manchmal wurde Sperrfeuer geschossen, den das Vermessen der Entfernung war sehr schwierig damals neh, am Tag ging das durch die vier-meter Basis, aber am nachts war das schwierig. Und das war in der ganzen, in dem ganzen halben Jahr vorher nicht einmal passiert. Und da bin ich mit’m Paar die den Zielweg nicht aufzeichnen brauchten [unclear] Malsigerät wir haben oben zugeguckt wie da die Flak geschossen hat und da ist wohl das Stichwort gekommen Sperrfeuer und unsere Batterie hat das nicht gemacht weil ich net da war und meine Kumpels. Und da simma nächsten Tag wurde eine zbV Batterie aufgebraut und dann kam der Hauptmann schon auf mich zu und ’Sie wissen ja warum sie jetzt versetzt werden’. Da kam ich zur zbV Batterie mit vierleutenarme [?] und da wurden wir dann umgeschult, sollten wir eigentlich nach Breslau, [clears throat] und da haben wir schon das [unclear] gepackt und alles neh und da kamen kurz davor in der Doppelbaracke da war die andere Seite, da war der Oberleutnant, der Batteriechef und der telefonierte plötzlich, da haben wir alle gehorcht und da hatt er gesagt:’Wunderbar! Ist ja wunderbar! Herrlich! Toll!’ und so und da kam er gleich zu uns rüber: ‘Wir fahren nicht nach Breslau, das ist eingenommen worden von Russen’. Und dann kamen wir zur 12,8-Batterie, wurden wir umgeschult, nach Maronhüls [?], da in diesen ehemaligen,
HZ: Wie heisst das?
HK: [unclear] hiess das Nest, das Dorf, [unclear] ist eine grosse Stadt in das [unclear] gebiet da am Rand und da war eine V2-Herstellungs, so ‘ne Fabrik, die das herstellten oder auch schossen oder wie das war. Und die wurden da immer, wenn Flieger kamen, Feinde, da wurde das eingenebelt neh. Und dann wurden wir ausgebildet an den Kannonen und eines Tages da flogen mehrere Kannonen in die Luft durch Rohrkrepierung, das war also Sabotage von Munitionsfabriken, haben irgendwelche Fehler eingebaut.
HZ: Haben dann bei Ihnen waren da auch Russische Hiwis oder waren da auch andere in den Flak?
HK: Ja, waren da [unclear] dabei, Russische weniger, aber italiener, diese Badoglio-Truppen,
HZ: Ja.
HK: Diese von dem abgesprungenen General Badoglio neh, oder Serben glaub ich und so was, die wurden dann da beschäftigt. Und irgend einer hat da warscheinlich so was erfunden dass das und da krepierten in ganz Deutschland bei der 12,8 die Granaten und da hatten sie keine Kanonen mehr. Da kamen wir wieder nach Kassel, hier oben in Welhheiden da haben wir in so einer Baracke gewohnt vierzehn Tage oder was und dann kriegten wir den Einsatzbefehl zur Vierlingsflak Umschulung am Edersee auf der Talsperre. Die war wieder hergestellt, die war ja kaputt, wissen Sie das durch die Ballbombe,
HZ: Ja, die rolling bombs.
HK: Die da rotierte neh, das war ne ganz, technisch ne ganz tolle Sache neh, da muss ich wirklich sagen also war schon klasse aber als wir hinkamen war die schon wieder zugemauert, also das war für mich als Baumensch ein riesige Leistung innerhalb vom Jahr, oder halbes Jahr was die das alles fertigmachen, so sieht’s heute noch aus, ist da nachgemacht worden.
HZ: Wir sind da mal da gewesen, ja.
HK: Also das ist also eine riesige Leistung gewesen, wie die das alle gemacht haben, das weiss ich net, jedenfalls dann wurden wir auf der Vierling, da hatten wir oben auf der Mauer da war so’n holz, Holztürmchen aufgebaut da standen vier, drei Vierlingsflak [laughs] und da soll’n wir nun, wurden wir ausgebildet. So und dann am zwanzigsten, so und dann weil wir vier Kasselaner waren dann wurden wir immer weggeschickt zum Kurierdienst weil man der, Autos gab’s ja nicht, sie mussten also die Kurierpost, die musste zur Heeresgruppe, zur Luftwaffengruppe, des war hier in einer Kaserne auf der Hasenhecke hier in Kassel und da konnten sie an einem Tage nicht mit der Bahn hinfahren und wieder zurückkommen und da haben sie uns vier Kasseler immer eingeteilt, da konnten wir zuhause schlafen. Und da hatten wir das natürlich wunderbar. Und [unclear] ich mal wieder wegblicken, Anfang Februar oder irgend, Mitte Februar war das, da sagte mir der Schreibstubenbulle da, sagte:’Hör mal, wenn du jetzt nach hause gehst bring dir mal ein Paar Zivilklammotten mit’. Ich sag:’warum dann das?’. Das habe ich dann gemacht und dann zwei Tage später bei der Befehlsausgabe, da sagte der Hauptmann: ‘Wer hat Zivilsachen mit?’ Ich, Herr Hauptmann’, ‘morgen Abmarsch’ und da war die Entlassung hier neh. 20 Februar 1944 wurde ich von der Flak entlassen, ich war der erste [laughs], werde ich nie vergessen. Na ja, und dann war ich ein Paar Tage zuhause und da kriegte ich die Einberufung da, die hatte ich ja schon und dann hatten wir den Angriff hier etwa, ich weiss des Datum leider net mehr, am zweiten März oder irgendsowas, muss jetzt, grade jetzt auf die Zeit [unclear] muss das gewesen sein,
HZ: Ich hab mir.
HK: Da ist das Haus getroffen worden und ich war da zu Hause und da war ich mit ein Paar Freunden in einem Bunker.
HZ: Ja?
HK: Das erste Mal in meinem Leben in einen Bunker gewesen, weil da einer Musik machte, da war immer so’n bisschen was los. Und da kam ein Junge rein der sagte: ‘Helmut, stell dir mal vor, bei euch da in der Strasse brennt’s wie verrückt’. Und da bin ich raus, der Luftschutzwache wollte mich net raus lassen, da hab ich ihn weggeschoben, das war mich ganz egal [unclear] und da kam ich hin polterte die treppe hoch so, kurz vor mir ist die Holztreppe eingekracht, desshalb würde ich heute als Baumensch nie eine Holztreppe bauen, immer ne Betontreppe [laughs]. So und da stand ich unten und sah wie aus unserem Wohnzimmer, unserem Herrenzimmer die Flammen [unclear] schlugen und ich konnte nix machen. Da guckte ich so an mir runter da hatte ich Hose an und Schuhe an, keinen Kamm, keine Zahnbürste, da kam ich mir vor wie der ärmste Mensch den’s gibt auf der Welt, wirklich dieses Gefühl, das habe ich schon meinen Kindern erzählt, das war furchtbar, da stand ich da ach Gott, mein Wintermantel der hängt da an der Gardrobe, alles so und kam ich da gar net dran, das war eine furchtbare Nacht. Da bin ich mit meinen Freund, der war auch zufällig da, und da sind wir in den Keller, haben das bisschen was Mutter so’n Paar Koffer und so was, haben wir dann raus auf die Strasse gestellt, na ja und das haben wir dann, haben wir später mit einem Pferdefuhrwerk geholt und alles nach Gudensberg geschafft zu Verwandten.
HZ: Ja, die Geschichte wo Sie da noch zur Stadtkommandantur gegangen sind [unclear] mir erzählt haben.
HK: Ja, das ist da passiert.
HZ: Ja, die könnense noch amal für das Band erzählen.
HK: Ja, gut und da hatte ich ja di Einberufung und dann, so die hatte ich ja vorher schon deshalb bin ich ja bei der Flak entlassen worden, und dann einberufen sollte ich werden, das glaub ich am 6 März oder irgendwas sollte ich da antanzen und am zweiten oder so dann passierte der Bombenangriff und da hat der Onkel gesagt, neh, richtig, der Onkel hat gesagt:’Neh, das geht net, da kannste net weg’, ich sage:’Was mache ich den jetzt?’ ‚Ja dann, geh doch mal zur Ostkommandantur’, und da bin ich dann nach Kassel, ich glaub sogar gelaufen, [unclear] viele Stunden, und dann war die Geschichte ja mit der Ostkommandantur, wo ich draussen stand der Posten und da sagte ich, ‘Luftwaffenoberhelfer Koeler hier der will zum Ostkommandanten sprechen’, [laughs] das ich überhaupt den Mut hatte da staune ich heute noch, und wo er dann, wo ich dann sagte: ‘Ich bitte da um ein Paar Tage Urlaub, meine Mutter ist alleine und wir haben ein Paar Sachen rausgeholt aus’m Keller, die stehen da alle noch und ich muss, meine schwangere Schwester kann auch net helfen und so neh, und dann hat er dann gesagt also, na ja, mich mitleidig angeguckt und da hat er gesagt: ‘Na ja, melden sich in acht Tagen wieder’. ‘Jawohl!’ Und dann bin ich dann los und dann hat der Onkel gefragt: ‘Hat er überhaupt gefragt wo du wohnst?’, da hab ich gesagt: ‘neh’, ‚das ist gut, da gehst du nicht mehr hin‘. Und dann haben wir den englischen Rundfunk gehört abends, ‘Hier ist England, Hier ist England’. Und dann habe ich dann nun, haben wir dann nun bald erfahren wo die Amerikanischen Truppen, die sind dann in Remagen über’m Rhein weg, und dann waren sie schon über Frankfurt weg, und dann sagte der Onkel: ‘Das dauert keine zwei Wochen dann sind die hier’, und es stimmte auch. Am ersten April waren die ersten Amis in Gudensberg. Und so bin ich davongekommen. Und vorher hatte ich noch, da hatte mich mit so’n Mädchen da getroffen, standen wir so im Hauseingang, Ich konnte ja nur abends weggehen, am Tage lies mich der Onkel net raus, da kam einer plötzlich [makes a noise] stand einer neben mir, guckte mich an, sagte: ‘Bist Du den verrückt?’, der dachte ich wäre so’n Desertierter, er war nämlich auch einer. ‚du stellst dich hier hin, eben haben’se drei da oben erschossen‘, die haben’se erwischt neh, und da wurde es mir natürlich unheimlich, da bin ich auch abends weggegangen. Ja und bis die Amerikaner kamen. Das war ein Karfreitag, erster April 1945 [laughs], Karfreitag war das. Und die Tante hatte vorher schon ein bisschen Kuchen gebacken und dann sassen wir dann am Küchentisch und haben Kuchen gegessen. Auf einmal klopft es an der Haustür. Da kamen die ersten Amerikanischen Soldaten. Vor jedem Haus hielt ein, wie nannten die sich diese drei-achsler?, LKWs, na ja gut, weiss jetzt nimmer, und da sassen immer zehn Mann drauf, Amerikaner und im jedem Haus kam da Einquartierung und da mussten die Zivilleute alle raus. Und da kam der Unteroffizier oder was er da war, weiss ich net, der kam als erste sah mich an: ‘Raus!’, so ‘Raus!’. Da sag ich: ‘Moment muss ich Schuhe anziehen‘, zieh am ende Schuhe, dann kam ich die Treppe da runter und da standen zwei mit der MP und haben sie mich abgeführt zum Ostkommandanten. Und da war so’n netter kleiner Dolmetscher und der fragte: ‘Warum sind sie kein Soldat?’ Sag ich: ‘Ich war bei, als Luftwaffenhelfer’. Konnte er nix mit anfagen. [unclear] Und diesen Luftwaffenhelferausweis den hatte ich in der Tasche und dann wollte ich ihn zeigen und da fiel er vor lauter Aufregung fiel mir da hin, da war der schneller da und, ‘Ach!’ sagte ‘jetzt weiss ich was sie waren’. Da ist er zu seinem Boss hingegangen, zu dem Kolonel oder, neh Kolonel war er net, also der Offizier neh, und da kam der raus und dann guckte der mich an. This fellow is [unclear], ab und da bin ich auch schnell nach hause und so bin ich davongekommen. Draussen standen dann da, die haben sie alle aufgesammelt, die verwundet waren, Verwundetenurlaub und so und die sind dann alle nach Frankreich abgeschoben worden. Mussten ein Jahr im Bergwerk arbeiten und so. Ich bin da davongekommen. Das war meine Zeit in Gudensberg und da war ich eben fünf Jahre in Gudensberg, Fussball gespielt und so, das war eine schöne Zeit, aber in Kassel gab’s keine Schulen, des erste halbe Jahr gab’s nix. Und mein Freund hier, der Erich, der ist in Kassel weiter geblieben und der hat mich immer mal besucht in Gudensberg und der sagte eines Tages: ‘Helmut, im Herbst geht die Schule wieder los‘, die Albert-Schweitzer Schule, hier in der Kölnischen Strasse, die hiess damals Adolf Hitler Schule während des Krieges [laughs], und der sagte der Rektor da das ist der Ale Witschi [?], der mal zu uns in der Flakstellung kam und mit dem habe ich jetzt mal gesprochen über dich und der hatte gesagt ich sollte mal kommen, sollte mal gucken, der hätte einen Plan für mich. Da bin ich dann hingegangen, habe einen Ausbildungschef gefragt, hier ‚n Meister, darf ich da mal dahingehen? Ja selbstverständlich. Und da hat er gesagt: ‘Gut, zwei Tage Schule haben wir in der Woche. Und in den zwei Tagen kannste zur Schule gehen und die anderen vier Tage, weil ja Sonnabend auch ein Arbeitstag war, da gehste in die Lehre. Frag mal deinen Lehrmeister ob er das macht.
HZ: Und was haben sie da für eine Lehre gemacht?
HK: Maurerlehrer.
HZ: Maurerlehrer.
HK: So ich war im Baugeschäft, und meine Mutter stammte auch aus dem Baugeschäft, also für mich gab’s gar nichts anderes, ich war, begeistert bin ich heute noch. Ich wollte Baumeister werden, was das damals war weiss ich net, aber das wollte ich ja einfach werden und da musste ich, ja Schule gab’s nicht mehr und da hab ich gesagt, jeden Tag beim Onkel Stall misten wollte ich auch net, ich will Lehre machen und so. So ist das gekommen. Und die Tochter von dem Bauunternehmer hier in Kassel, die war eine Freundin von meiner ältesten Schwester. Also wir kannten die, die Familie kannte sich persönlich sowieso. Nun dann bin ich zum Vitrokin [?], das war der Rektor, der Kommissarische Rektor von der Schule und der hat mich begrüsst wie ein alter Kumpel den der kam in unser Flakschirm das hat man auch Unterricht gekriegt [unclear] Flakschirm weil wir Schüler waren neh und dann hatt er manchmal gesagt [unclear]:’Ach Jungs, habt ihr noch mal, nimmt mal eine Tasse Kaffee für mich’ Und dann kam so, alles zu Fuss, [unclear] und der war wie’n Kumpel für uns, das war der Lehrer, und dann hat er mich begrüsst wie ein alter Kumpel da neh, sagte mach dein Lehrmeister einen Vorschlag und da machste bis Ostern das und dann kriegste das Zeugnis der Mittleren Reife, das hatte ich auch net, hatte ich nix, Schule kaputt, und so haben wir das gemacht. Dann bin ich zwei Tage zu Schule gegangen, richtig noch Latein und Matte und alles sowas neh und dann habe ich so ein Einheitszeugnis, so gross, stand ‘Alles befriedigt’ [laughs]. Na ja gut, und das ist meine Schulausbildung gewesen, kein Abitur gemacht, gar nix. Na ja, und dann habe ich dann studiert, habe ich dann meine Maurerlehre gemacht, an der staatlichen Ingenieurschule beworben, und das war ja auch so tragisch. Da musste zwei Tage Aufnahmeprufung sein neh, mit dem bisschen Wissen was ich da aus der Schule hatte und dann waren, dreisig haben, wolltense aufnehmen, und driehundertsechsig Bewerber kamen da in die Schule am Königstor als Offiziere und hatten noch ihre Offiziersmäntel an und so weil wir nix kaufen konnten [unclear]. Und da bin ich natürlich mit Glanz und Gloria auch durchgefallen. Und da habe ich mich auf die Hose gesetzt. Mit einem Freund aus Gudensberg zusammen, den Roman [unclear], der stammte aus Litauen, der war da Flüchtling, und da haben wir da richtig gepauckt. Hier neben uns da wohnte der Doktor Enders, Mathematik, Studienrat, war’n Kollege, Freund von meinem Vater, genau hier in der Parallelwohnung in der [unclear] und der hat uns dann Mathe beigebracht. Plötzlich viel es mir wie Schuppen von den Augen, plözlich konnte ich ne Gleichung mit zwei Unbekannten, das war gar kein Problem mehr. Und so bin ich dann zur zweiten Prüfung ein halbes Jahr später und da hab ich’s bestanden und so hab ich meine Paar Semester, fünf, sechs Semester glaub ich, [unclear] Ausbildung
HZ: Gemacht.
HK: So ist das geworden. Und dann fanden wir keine Arbeit und so. Und dann bin ich da mit einem Kollegen hier rumgelaufen ob als Maurer ein bisschen Geld verdienen konnten, als Maurer kriegten’se [unclear] Arbeit das war ’52.
HZ: Das war [unclear].
HK: Das war ganz ganz schlimm neh. Und dann hatte ich durch einen Onkel, der war in Bielefeld Stadtrat und der hat mir vermittelt beim Bielefelder Tiefbeamt eine Aushilfstelle für einviertel Jahr und habe auch bei denen gewohnt, es waren so Industrielle die haben da heute noch so Fabriken und so was Graustoffwerk und da hatten sie aber keine Planstelle und mittlerweile habe ich mich beworben bei einer Hamburger Firma die ein Onkel von mir kannte weil der Besitzer, der Vater von dem jetzigen Besitzer er war, war ein Studienkollege von meinem Ober, so hat sich das ergeben. Und die bauten Helgoland wieder auf, weil Helgoland ja ein Abwurfgebiet von der Britischen Armee war nach’m Kriege, da haben sie X Bomben ausprobiert, die ganze Insel Helgoland die war praktisch unbewohnbar, Blindgänger und die mussten wir, wurde praktisch umgepflügt die ganze Insel, drei meter da weggetragen und dahingepackt und da gingen natürlich immer die Blindgänger und die Bomben hoch. Die Bagger die hatten solche Stahlplatten davor, das der Fahrer net verletzt wurde. Und kurz davor kriegt ich ein Telegramm, das habe ich übrigens noch, nächste Woche nicht, Telefon gab’s ja gar net, nicht nach Helgoland sondern Mönchengladbach. So, Telefonummer aufgeschrieben, da bin ich nach Mönchengladbach gefahren da kriegte, hatte die Firma einen grossen Auftrag gekriegt, das englische Hauptquartier, das Hauptverwaltungsgebaüde, das steht übrigens heute noch, da habe ich auch jetzt ein Bild gefunden noch davon und das hatte ja zweitausendzweihundert und so und soviele Zimmer, Britische Rheinarmee. Und das habe ich, da war ich Bauführer nannte sich damals. Waren wir drei Mann und hatten teilweise bis vierhundert Leute beschäftigt. Britische Rheinarmee hiess das glaub ich. Und da habe ich auch die Einweihung mitgemacht, da haben wir noch, vorne in den Haupteingang, in dem Pfeiler, da haben wir noch eine Kassette eingemauert die muss heute noch [unclear] sein, sind noch warscheinlich noch Namen die ich noch merkte, ich weiss es nimmer so genau, mit ne silbernen Kelle haben wir da [unclear]. Und das war meine Grösse und auch eine, da habe ich viel gelernt [unclear]. Ganze drei Jahre war ich da. Das war sehr interessant und da habe ich mit einem Englischen Pionieroffizier viel zu tun gehabt neh, das waren die die eher kein Deutsch konnten. Und ein Ziviloffizier der war mittlerweile dann, er war früher auch bei den Pionieren gewesen und der war dann entlassen worden wegen Alter, der war dann schon Ende fuffzig oder irgendwas, und der wollte noch als Zivilingenieur und der schlief auch in einer Barakke von uns und dem haben wir auch Skatspielen beigebracht.
HZ: [laughs]
HK: Und dann haben wir auch mit dem die Weltmeisterschaften damals wo Deutschland Weltmeister 1954, da hatten wir noch kein Fernsehen und alles so was. Da hat er mit uns geguckt, da haben wir auf’n Stuhlen gestanden und [laughs], na ja und das war der mister Webster und der hat mich so ein bisschen aufgeklärt, der sagte, hören sie mal Herr Koehler, der sprach ganz gut Deutsch, weil er eine Deutsche Frau hatte aus Aachen und der sagte: ‚Die können bestimmt auch Deutsch‘, und da habe ich mal irgendwie was falsch verstanden und da hat er mich zur Rede gestellt. Mister Buru, was er für einen [unclear] hatte weiss ich nicht, Major, Major Buru, und da habe ich gesagt: ‚so Major Buru‘, habe ich in Deutsch dann gesagt, ab jetzt kann ich kein Englisch mehr‘ und da hat er gelacht und da kam der mister Webster dazu und da haben die ein bisschen gequatscht und seit dem haben wir nur noch Deutsch gesprochen und mit den anderen Kollegen genauso [laughs]. Das war nun meine Zeit mit den Engländern und ich wollte immer nochmal nach’m Kriege hin, nach der Zeit hin, aber ich bin nie wieder dahingekommen. Es muss heute noch da und wenn sie mal da in der Nähe sind, Mönchengladbach, Ortsteil Hardter Wald, das ist ja’n Riesenbezirk, das sind ja, das ist hier wie ‚ne Stadt, da lebten fast zwanzigtausend Menschen, da gab’s Schulen und für die Offiziere, und Offizierskasino und Kino und Theater und da haben wir mehrere Baustellen gehabt, das war meine schönste Zeit so mit
HZ: Aus [unclear]
HK: Und von da aus sollte ich dann nach Berlin da kriegtense in Berlin ‚n Auftrag, und weil wir nun damals für das Englische Hauptquartier bauten, da waren wir für die DDR Feinde. Das war der Karl Eduard von Schnitzler hiess der, Sudel-Ede hiess der, der brachte so politische Kommentare jeden Tag, das war so’n Richter. Ich weiss nicht ob sie den Namen schon
HZ: Den Namen kenn ich noch ja.
HK: Eduard von Schnitzler, der Sudel-Ede hiess er bei uns, und der hat da mal gesagt: ‘Es gibt sogar Deutsche die für die feindlichen Truppen heute noch bauen’ und da haben wir sogar, wurden die Namen genannt, unsere drei Namen. Und ich hab’s selber net gehört, das haben sie von Hauptbüro aus Hamburg habense uns das gesagt, also hütet euch, die Verbindungsstrasse zu fahren zwischen Helmstedt und Berlin, [unclear] vielleicht festgenommen. Und dann sollte ich nach Berlin, da hätten wir nun fliegen können von Hannover aus und da hab ich dann hier alles mögliche mobil gemacht hier in Kassel neh. Durch so‘n befreundeten Architekten, dann kriegte ich dann ‚ne Stelle bei einem Architekten hier und von da aus, na ja, das interessiert sie jetzt [unclear]. Und so bin ich nachher bei der Stadt gelandet, bei der Stadt Kassel und hab für die die Kläranlage, das war der erste grosse Massnahme, die Kläranlage baute, seit dem haben sie mich übernommen und da war ich naher auch in zwanzig Jahren Sachgebietsleiter vom Brucken und [unclear] Bau. Wenn sie jetzt über eine Brücke fahren ist alles so [laughs]
HZ: [laughs] kann ich sagen.
HK: Na ja gut das ist mein Lebenslauf.
HZ: Ehm, so, weil sie schon mal angefangen, angesprochen haben mit dem Bombenangriff auf Kassel, was denken sie eigentlich wären so prägende Erlebnisse gewesen die sie vielleicht auch heute noch beschäftigen?
HK: Ja, die mich heute noch beschäftigen, ich seh’s jetzt erstmal vom baulichen Standpunkt her. Die ganze Altstadt, die aus‘m Mittelalter noch stammt, die ist mit einem Schlag innerhalb zwei Stunden war alles kaputt und zehntausend Menschen in den Kellern, so, und die haben einen schönen Tod gehabt. Die sind an Sauerstoffmangel eingeschlafen. Den Keller hat wir ja früher net met waagerechten Decken gemacht sondern es waren nur Gewölbe, sonst ging aus staatlichen Gründen net anders neh. Und da sind die eingeschlafen, die sind regelrecht gebacken worden, oben bis auf diesen brennenden Schutt rauf und dieses Gewölbe war wie Backofen beim Bäcker. Da sind die zusammengeschrumpft so wie wir, wir wären plötzlich so gross gewesen, dieses ganze Wasser wäre verdampft neh. Die haben eigentlich einen sehr schönen Tod gehabt. Entschuldige wenn ich das so sage heute, das will ja keiner hören. Die sind eingeschlafen, Sauerstoffmangel, eingeschlafen und nie wieder aufgewacht. Und sind gebacken worden. Denn Ich habe die ja nachher gesehen wo sie aus den Kellergewölben rausgeholt wurden, von Gefangenen her, die ehemaligen Nazis und die mussten die da rausholen. Nach’m Kriege und so neh.
HZ: Sind da eigentlich beim raümen weil sie da auch dabei waren, sind da auch Zwangsarbeiter und Kriegs, wie heiss’ns, Kriegsgefangene eingesetzt worden?
HK: Ja diese, Kriegsgefangene, waren da auch. Das will ich noch mal kurz sagen. Die Flakstellung wo wir waren bei der Flak. Ich war nun bei der Umwertung, und der, war mein Schulfreund hier und der Elektrofritze da, wir hatten zuhause, der Mann, der Ober der war schon ein grosser Elektroindustrielle und so, Funkmessgerät und so. Und wennse zur, an’s Geschutz kamen, da war, drei Kannoniere waren Luftwaffenhelfer, die stellten diese Messgeräte an, wir konnten das ja viel besser als die Soldaten die vorher da waren, weil wir schneller und pfiffiger waren neh, das waren drei Luftwaffenhelfer an jeder eine Kannone, die die Breitengrade, Höhengrade und die Entfernung eingestellt haben und der Ladekannonier das war ein Deutscher und die Zureichen die Munition, das waren meistens Russische Kriegsgefangene. Müssen sich das vorstellen, die saßen, oder Französische, die saßen mit uns in dem kleinen Wald da neh und haben gebibbert. Dann habe ich dann auch von denen die, zum Teil Deutsch, hattense immer Hunger und dann kriegten sie von uns immer eine Scheibe Brot neh und alles so was. Wir hatten ein gutes Verhältnis mit denen, das war das mit den Kriegsgefangenen und die waren natürlich auch viele in der Industrie hier in Kassel, in Kassel hatten wir die Junkerswerke und so,
HZ: Da hätten [unclear] der Fieseler.
HK: Fieseler und so. Und auch die Munition herstellten [unclear] war früher neh und so und deshalb war ja auch die Flak hier rings rum und so. Ja und so haben wir viel mit den Kriegsgefangenen, wie viel da nun tot gegangen sind hier in der Stadt, die wohnten ja net hier in so, die wohnten immer ausserhalb in so Lagern, desshalb sind net allzu viele da umgekommen von den Kriegsgefangenen.
HZ: Nöh, ich hab bloß, ob die dann auch eingesetzt, ob die dann auch eingesetzt wurden beim raümen. Ich hatte da, ich hatte da von dem, da hatt schon mal einer Überlebensberichte veröffentlicht ‚93, die habe ich mir mal angeguckt und da sind auch zumindestens zwei Holländer und ein Franzose dabei. Aber, weil halt dann die Zeitungen hier, die Regionalzeitungen, die fragen ja dann schon nach Zuschriften, aber weil das ja dann immer bloß regional gemacht wird, da kriegt man ja dann immer bloß die Deutschen Stimmen,
HK: Richtig. Richtig, genau. Richtig.
HZ: Die von dem anderen, da hört man ja nix und das wär natürlich auch mal interessant.
HK: Nein also Holländer waren viele, Kriegsgefangene Holländer waren viele hier in Kassel. Und hier eine kleine Episode wo wir aus dem Keller mit meinen Freunden, aus dem, irgendwo brannte es, aus dem Keller haben wir dann die Paar Sachen rausgeholt, die lagen tagelang, vier, fünf Tage auf der Strasse, da hat keiner was geklaut oder irgendwas neh. Und dann wo wir dann mit dem Pferdewagen hier nach Kassel kamen und haben das dann abgeholt wollen, da war mitten in der Strasse, also die Hansteinstrasse, die Uferstrasse ist, genau in der mitte der Strasse war ein Riesenbombentrichter. Wir konnten also mit dem Wagen garnet zu unserm Haus finden.
HZ: Ja.
HK: Es war nur so’n schmaler Streifen an dem Vorgarten links und da hätten wir die ganzen Sachen da vorne an die Hauptstrasse bringen müssen, wo der Wagen stand, und da bin ich unten in die Hauptstrasse rein und da kam mal zwei Männer und da sag ich:, kommt mal her, wollt ihr mir da ein bisschen helfen?‘, das waren Holländer und die haben mir geholfen diese Sachen dahin und da habense so’ne Flasche Wein also von meinem Vater her, der hatte noch so‘n Weinschrank und da waren noch ein Paar Flaschen Wein drin und da hab ich ihnen eine gegeben und eine habense mir noch geklaut, das hab ich aber erst später gemerkt aber das hab ich ja eingesehen, das war schon richtig neh und so und das waren Holländer. Die haben mir dann geholfen. Also die liefen dann hier rum, so Freizeit, haben net dauernd gearbeitet, aber wie das war weiss ich net. Also über diese Verhaltnisse weiss ich eigentlich wenig Bescheid, die waren nur da, aber was se sonst so gemacht haben weiss ich net.
HZ: Da hat’s, ’95, die haben mal eine Wiedervereinigung hier gemacht, da haben sich welche hier in Kassel sogar wieder, wieder getroffen. Aber wie gesagt, die, man hört halt die Stimmen, man hört halt immer bloß die, also die Deutsch waren und auch hier im Gebiet geblieben sind, weil ich glaube das da einer in Bad Nauheim zum Beispiel die Hannoversche Allgemeine liesst, die werden, da gib’s halt dann keine Zuschrifften, desswegen habe ich da bloß immer so, so gefragt.
HK: Also es gab ja viele persönliche Schicksale auch neh, das auch sich Freundschaften gebildet haben. Zum Beispiel hier hatte mein Onkel in Gudensberg, der kriegte einen Polnischen Kriegsgefangenen, so als Hilfe, und das war ein Polnischer Student, war ein hochintelligenter Kerl, Jurek hiess er, und der hatte vorher noch nie was mit Landwirtschaft zu tun gehabt, der musste da milken lernen und so, der hatte es sehr gut beim Onkel, der durfte nur net am Tisch sitzen, sondern der musste am Küchentisch, da wurde so’ne Platte rausgeschoben, da sass der. Und mit dem bin ich dann zusammen auf’n Acker und hab gehackt und so und da hab ich ihm die Deutsche Grammatik beigebracht, das wollte er gerne wissen und ich hab da auch die Polnische Grammatik mitgekriegt, also das war aüsserst interessant. Und die Geschichte, er interessierte sich für alles, also war schon interessant neh. Hatten ne richtige Freundschaft geschlossen neh, der war nur zehn Jahre älter oder was, aber trotzdem. Und der ist auf einem Polnischen Zerstörer Soldat gewesen und da kamen die Stukas gleich am ersten oder zweiten Tag und haben den versenkt in der Ostsee und da haben sich ganze drei Mann retten können und er konnte gut schwimmen und hatt dann, durch’s schwimmen hatt er dann sich’s Leben gerettet. Und dadurch das er nun gut Deutsch konnte und sehr intelligent war, ist er in dem Polnischen Reisebüro Orbis nachher angestellt gewesen, in Danzig, neh in Posen glaub ich war das, neh Danzig, Stettin, entschuldigung, es ist, so ist das heute mit dem alten Kopf, Stettin. Und der hat mich hier mehrmals besucht. Der war der erste Polnische Reisende der hier in Deutschland sich bewegen durfte und der hat die Deutschen Reisegruppen, die wurden an der Grenze abgefangen und dann, die mussten ja alles ohne Aufsicht neh und wenn ne Deutsche Reisegruppe war, dann haben sie ihn eingeteilt weil er auch Deutsch konnte und wenn hier eine Reisegruppe aus Kassel kam, dann hatt er gesagt: ‚Sie kommen aus Kassel?‘, ‚Ja‘ ,Kennen sie Helmut Koehler?‘ ‚Nöh‘. Dann hatt er ihn die Telephonnummer gegeben, ja da hatte ich schon Telephon richtig, Anfang der 60er Jahre oder wann das war, ändert doch, ja so ungefähr, was soll denn, und da hatt er gesagt: ‚Rufen sie an wenn sie jetzt zuhause sind‘. Und da kriegt ich da X Telephongespräche hier von allen möglichen Leuten, ich soll sie grussen vom Yurek, [laughs] war schon interessant. Und dann kam er dann wirklich mal an und hat, er war der erste Polnische Reisende der hier nach Deutschland kommen konnte. Und dann kam er hier an, hatte vorher angerufen, war meine Frau da, die kannte den Jurek ja net und dann sagt’se, rief sie mich an im Büro, sagt‘se:‘Der Jurek hat angerufen‘. Jurek, ja dein Polnischer Freund, ja ja. Und dann haben wir am Fenster gestanden, um fünf oder was wollte er kommen und hatt sich dann, savott, [unclear] sieht genauso aus. Und der war jahrelang gleich nach’m Kriegsende hier in einer Kaserne auf der Hasenhecke da kamen die ganzen Polnischen und Russischen Kriegsgefangenen wurden da erstmal einquartiert und da war er Chef der Lagerpolizei. Da hat er mich eingeladen zu seiner Hochzeit, da hat er geheiratet und da hat meine Mutter gesagt: ‚Du kannst da net hinfahren, erstmal komste da gar net hin‘, erstmal von Gudensberg aus nach Kassel fuhr gar kein Zug richtig, und dann von hier aus laufen bis zur Hasenhecke das war in Waldau ganz, ich weiss net ob sie das genau so kennense.
HZ: Wir sind heute oben gewesen.
HK: Waldau, das ist so ganz unten an der Fulda da neh. Das ist noch mal mindestens zwei Stunden Fussweg neh, wie willste denn dahin kommen und da bin ich da net hin. Und da hat er mich am Bahnhof abgepasst, ich hab ja da schon gearbeitet, da hat er gesagt:‘So, du bist auf meiner Hochzeit nicht gewesen‘, da hat er mich ein ganzes Jahr lang net angeguckt, da kam er [unclear]. Und der, ich hab noch Post von ihm heute, da hatt er mir, ach, x-mal geschrieben und da kam er hier und dann hatt er mir von der Polnischen Politik berichtet, hier bei mir durfte er das jetzt sagen. Also das waren Zustände, wissense [unclear], soundosoviel Quadratmeter eine Person, durfte glaub ich nur zehn Quadratmeter Wohnfläche haben für eine Person sonst musseste zahlen, also unmögliche Zustände. Na ja gut, das war mit den Polen.
HZ: Und noch, noch irgendwas von der, noch irgendwas aus ihrer Zeit von der, bei der Flak?
HK: Von der Flak, neh. Ja gut also, wie gesagt, hier wo wir am Edersee waren, alle, zweimal in der Woche musste ich nach Kassel fahren, ich hatt’s natürlich gut, da brauchte ich keinen Dienst mehr zu machen. Und so habe ich auch viele Angriffe mitgemacht, die letzten Angriffe neh. Und da war ja meine Mutter und meine [unclear] schwangere Schwester die waren dann schon in Gudensberg, aber die Wohnung war immernoch da, die ist erst ganz, ja, letzter Angriff oder vorletzter Angriff auf Kassel. Und da war die Nachbarin die hat ja gesagt: ‚Helmut, kannst ruhig hier schlafen, wenn Fliegeralarm kommt da mach ich dich schon wach‘. Weil ich das [unclear] gehört habe, als junger Bursche [laughs] und so war das neh. Ja also da gibt’s eigentlich und dann die Angriffe hier. Dann eines Tages hatten wir einen Blindgänger im Haus, das war in der Silvesternacht, vom ‚44 auf ‚45, da war ich am Edersee und Neujahr musste ich Kurierdienst machen und da war ein Zettel an der Haustür: ‚Vorsicht, Blindgänger‘. Alle Leute [unclear] raus, die mussten alle weg. Da ist durch die Decken, durch die Bäder, wir hatten sogar schon Bäder damals, ist die Bombe durch die ganzen Bäder durch und über der Luftschutzkellerdecke ist die Bombe hängen geblieben, wenn die explodierte waren sie alle tot. Und meine Mutter, wir wohnten im dritten Stock, die ist als erstes raufgegangen, die wäre fast da reingefallen in das Loch, die hat das erst gar nicht gesehen weil ja kein Licht da, kein Strom und nix. Und dann hat sie geschrien und dann die Leute alle: ‚Ach Gott!‘ durch die Badewanne durch, war plötzlich ein Loch [laughs]. Na ja, und das haben’se dann wieder irgendwie geflickt, bis es dann ganz kaputt ging. Ja und als Luftwaffenhelfer das was insofern ‚ne interessante Zeit weil das für uns eben, ja, wie soll ich das sagen, wir waren aufgeweckte Gymnasiasten und wir hatten plötzlich eine Zeit vor uns die, die wir net richtig begreifen konnten, habe ich ja eben schon gesagt was is wenn der Krieg jetzt zu Ende ist, was passiert denn mit uns? Diese Gespräche hatten wir schon.
HZ: Das könnten sie auch für das Band nochamal dazu sagen, weil das haben sie mir ja schon vorher mal erzählt. Die Gespräche dann das die vielleicht, das da vielleicht die Flakhelfer so einen Sieg des Dritten Reiches gar net so entgegengesehn haben.
HK: Ja, das war zum Beispeil nach dem Angriff, nach dem Attentat auf‘m Hitler, das war der 20 Juni, Juli, glaub’ich, Juni.
HZ: Juni.
HK: 20 Juni 1944.
HZ: ‚44.
HK: Und dann, wie gesagt, dann in der Kabine, von der Funk, ach wie heisst der, wo die Nachrichten kamen, da wurde dann immer so die Lage da mitgeteilt, Hitler ist davongekommen undsoweiter, aes wurde da immer mitgeteilt. Und da kam der Hauptmann, Leutnant [unclear] und konnte dann [unclear] hören. So und da haben wir abends im Bett gelegen und haben dann gesagt: ‚Hier, das was wohl jetzt wird hier‘ undsoweiter und der Hitler ist davongekommen und da hat der einer gesagt.‘So’ne Scheisse!‘ [laughs], das werde ich also nie vergessen. Und da haben wir schon drüber unterhalten. Was wäre gewesen wenn und da haben wir aber auch debatiert drüber was des auch der Stauffenberg neh, was der auch für Fehler gemacht hat. Wenn er schon sowas macht, das Attentat auf’n Hitler, dann hätte er das auch richtig machen müssen. Er hätte warten müssen bis der tot ist, net vorher schon weglaufen. Er ist ja weggelaufen wo es da explodiert ist, er hätte sich erkundigen müssen, ist er nun wirklich tot oder so, und dadurch ist [unclear] das alles entstanden, wäre er danach stehngeblieben und hätte anschliessend erschossen, dann wäre er zwar auch erschossen worden aber so ist er auch umgekommen. Also das haben wir damals diskutiert, also der Stauffenberg hat da Fehler gemacht. Also so sachliche Gespräche haben wir als junge Leute gemacht, das ist mir noch gut [unclear] aber sonst mussten wir immer das machen was befohlen wurde, eigene Initiative konnten wir net haben.
HZ: Die, ehm, da werden verschiedene Zahlen angegeben, wie viel Flakhelfer einen Luftwaffensoldaten ersätzt hätten, ‚43, da heisst es, die einen sagen das wären, ein Flakhelfer für einen Soldaten gewesen, andere sagen das seien drei Flakhelfer für zwei Soldaten gewesen. Wissen sie da irgendwas?
HK: Hab ich ihnen ja eben gesagt, also diese Posten die wir hatten an der Kannone, die wären sonst von Soldaten gemacht worden
HZ: Also eins zu eins.
HK: Also jede Kannone wurden drei Soldaten gespart. Und wenn’s so’ne Grosskampfbatterie, die hatten acht Kannonen, acht ortsfeste Kannonen, also drei mal achzehn, vierundzwanzig Soldaten wurden schon alleine Kannonen gespart. Und dann kam dazu noch Kommandogerät, da hatten wir auch pfiffige Schüler von uns, die waren am Kommandogerät, da waren auch mindestens dreie, ich weiss es heute nicht mehr so genau, jeden [unclear] und Funkmessgerät. Und dann hier die Umwertung, wo wir nur Luftwaffenhelfer waren, da waren ja früher Soldaten. Also ich hatte alleine, ich war mal eine Zeitlang [unclear] Unteroffizier der, des Befehlsgewalt hatte über die Umwertung, der musste zum Lehrgang, da muss ja einer Stellvertreter sein und da hatt der Hauptmann bestimmt das war ich. Und in der Zeit ist das passiert mit dem Sperrfeuer und da musste ich natürlich bestraft werden, da kam ich zur zbV Batterie [laughs] das ist so kleine Erinnerung, da wurde ich bestraft. Na ja aber schon, das sind dann schon also vierundzwanzig, ich möchte mal sagen schon fast dreissig Soldaten wurden da schon gespart an einer Flakstellung, und wir waren ja ungefähr dreissig Luftwaffenhelfer.
HZ: Sind da auch welche von denen die sie gekannt haben, sind da auch welche gefallen?
HK: Neh.
HZ: Neh.
HK: Also wir haben zwar einen Bombenangriff mitgemacht und zwar in Kaufungen, da wo des grosse Lager von Panzern und LKWs war von der Deutschen Industrie, da ist genau zwischen der Flak, zwischen der Geschützstellung und zwischen der Befehlsstelle, da waren ungefähr, hundert, hundertfuffzig meter dazwischen und genau da ist mal ein ganzer Bombenteppich runter [unclear], genau dazwischen, und da hatt einer noch hier, am Fuss hier, irgendwie‘n Stein oder was da, kam ins Lazzaret hatte eine Verse kaputt. Das war das einzige was ich erlebt habe. Aber hier vorne, in der [unclear] hier, wenn sie hier ein Stückchen runtergehen, zum Auestadion, da ist, geht’s links die Ludwig-Mond-Strasse hoch und das war früher alles freies Feld und da stand eine Flakstellung, die haben viele Tote gehabt da. Da ist mal ein ganzer Bombenteppich über die Flakstellung weg, aber wie viel das wurde damals nicht bekannt gegeben. Da waren also mehrere Schüler die sind dann umgekommen aber zahlmässig waren es verhältnissmässig wenig, dass muss ich schon sagen. Die haben schon ein Bisschen auf uns jungen, junge Burschen so’n bisschen Mitleid gehabt oder so. Auch die Offiziere, das waren alles Familienväter und so. Unser Batterieschef der war von Beruf Mattestudienrat und der sah nun die armen Jungen da und hatte vielleicht selber auch Kinder zuhause und so. Also die haben uns schon so’n bisschen [unclear], das haben wir damals nicht so gemerkt, das haben wir nur dann später so erzählt wenn wir mal zusammen waren, na ja.
HZ: Gut.
HK: Weiss nicht ob ich ihnen viel dienen konnte mit dem, also, eh.
HZ: Des ist, des is ok, da bedanke ich mich. Weil das geht ja um ihre Erinnerungen, das geht ja net da drum.
HK: Ja, sicher, ich meine, Politik wurde damals ja ausgeschlossen, Politik gab’s die ganze Woche Politik, das kannten wir ja net gar net, also wenn da einer was von Politik erzählte wusste da einer gar nix mehr da anzufangen. Was Hitler sagte das war Evangelium. Und ich kann mich erinnern, das war wo wir am Edersee waren, sind, Weihnachten, ja hatten wir keinen Ausgang, mussten wir da bleiben Weihnachten, Weihnachten ‚44, ah da gab’s da ein Festessen, da gab’s net nur Sauerkraut und Pellkartoffeln, das gab’s fünf mal in der Woche, da gab’s dann zu Weihnachten ein Stückchen Fleisch ob das nun vom Hund war oder vom das wusste kein Mensch. Und da sassen wir in der Kantine und da sagte dann der Hautpmann: ‚Na, nun wollen wir mal ein Weihnachtslied singen‘. Da waren wir alle so traurig, wir Jungen, kriegte keiner einen Ton raus und einer nach‘m anderen ging dann raus und ich musste dann auch raus weil Tränen kamen und dann standen im Saal und heulten aber wie, ein Geschluchze und so. Also man merkte dann doch diese innere Ergriffenheit unter uns Schülern, wir waren net alle so, und dann mussten wir dann die Reden von Goebbels glaub ich oder wer das war, mussten wir dann anhören. Also es war schon manchmal schwierig, das kann ich ihnen sagen. Genau wie ich mal als Pimpf, wie war denn das, ich war hier auch, Hitlerjunge net zuerst waren es Pimpfe neh, also Jungvolk hiess das, mit zehn Jahren und so, da kriegtense die Uniform da waren wir ganz stolz drauf. Und dann war, wie war denn das eigentlich, jetzt weiss ich nicht zu welchem Anlass, denn da musste ich in der Stadthalle auf der Bühne an der Fahne stehen und vor uns dann, war das nach dem ersten Angriff auf Kassel glaub ich, das war ‚42, was, so war das, da kam der Joseph Goebbels und hat’ne Rede gehalten, da [unclear] so fünf, sechs Meter hinter’m Joseph gestanden, mit der Fahne neh, da konnte sie ja nix ändern dran, sie wurden einfach bestimmt, konnte sie sich net wehren oder so, das weiss ich immer noch so und da hat unsere Herzen werden starker und was er da alles gebrüllt hat, das ist zu erinnern. Genau wie einmal, das war glaub ich zum Reichskriegertag, ‚39, da war ich grade so‘m Pimpf, da war der Hitler hier in Kassel, zum Reichskriegertag, das mus ‚39, nah sie konn’s ja besser recherchieren, ich weiss nicht mehr wann das war, und da waren wir an der schönen Aussicht und da sollten wir absperren und, aber die Leute haben uns kleinen Jungen ja weggedrängt. Da bin ich hinten auf die Mauer die ja heute noch da ist und hab von oben geguckt und ich sag immer heute noch zu den Jungen, da hat mich der Hitler begrüsst, da guckte er nämlich grade dahin, machte immer so net, und grade da in dem Moment wo er zu mir guckt, da winkte er, da sag ich er hat mir zugeguckt [laughs] [unclear] das wissen meine Enkel sogar [laughs] [unclear]. Ja, Hitler, das ist so, für meinen Begriff, war das schon ein grosser Stratege und ein unheimlich schlauer Mensch, ganz egal was er nun gemacht hat, das Ergebniss war ja schlecht, aber wie er das gemacht hat, es gibt in der ganzen Geschichte, sie kennen die Geschichte besser, so Napoleon oder, ganzen Kriegen so, wie der Cäsar und so, das waren Strategen neh, oder hier, Dschingis Khan und so, wenn man sich vorstellt, in der Zeit, die kommen von der Mongolei mit Pferden und was weiss ich alle hierher, und beherschen ganze Riesenreiche hier. Also das ist schon eine gewaltige Sache und in diese Kategorie gehört meiner Meinung auch der Hitler wenn auch jetzt negativ seine Taten waren, aber er war Stratege, er hat bestimmt was jetzt gemacht wurde und die ganzen Generäle, die Feldmarschälle mussten das machen was er wollte. Das ist gar nicht so einfach sich das vorzustellen. Ich will den net in Schutz nehmen, net dasse denken ich wär ein alter Nazi oder so neh [laughs]. Aber er war wirklich und mein Vater der war jawohl, gut ich wusste nur, er hat jetzt eine Doktorarbeit gemacht über den Alten Fritze da und den Schlesigen Kriege da, und was er verehrt hat, das weiss ich von meiner Mutter her, Napoleon. Das war für ihn ein Riesenstratege wohl. Da hing sogar im Flur ein Riesengemälde von Napoleon, da kann ich mich als Kind da noch erinnern. Also es gab in der Welt mal so bestimmte Typen die übernormal strategisch begabt waren, das wissen sie besser, [unclear] sowas hier dazu erzählen [laughs] aber das ist meine Empfindung hier, meine Empfindung.
HZ: Gut, dann bedanke ich mich jetzt auch [unclear] mal.
HK: Ja, ich hoffe das.
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Helmut Köhler
Description
An account of the resource
Helmut Köhler (b. 1928) recalls his wartime experience as Luftwaffenhelfer. He provides a first-hand account of two attacks on Kassel, the first on the 22 October 1943 and the second in March 1944. He describes his time spent inside the air-raid shelter; how he helped extinguish fires; the destruction of schools and the entire old town being razed to the ground. He also discusses everyday life in an anti-aircraft unit, the process of matching skills to roles, training, and anti-aircraft fire. He mentions being posted to a special deployment unit as a punishment for noncompliance, following which he was re-trained on quadruplet anti-aircraft guns at the Eder dam. He briefly talks about the breaching of the Eder dam and the ensuing flood wave. Helmut Köhler recalls Russian and French prisoners of war manning flak batteries. He describes an unexploded bomb in his house on new year’s eve 1944. He stresses that Luftwaffenhelfer freed up soldiers for combat roles and highlights how the replacement ratio was almost 1:1. He mentions his first encounter with American troops in Gudensberg at the end of the war.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Harry Ziegler
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-03-03
Contributor
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Peter Schulze
Format
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00:59:29 audio recording
Language
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deu
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AKohlerH170303
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Eder Dam
Germany--Gudensberg
Germany
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-10-22
1944-03
1944-12
1943-05-16
1943-05-17
anti-aircraft fire
bombing
bombing of Kassel (22/23 October 1943)
childhood in wartime
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
firefighting
Luftwaffenhelfer
prisoner of war
shelter
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/883/22150/EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0002.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/883/22150/EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0003.2.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/883/22150/EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0004.2.jpg
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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Horton, Arthur
Arthur Leslie Horton
A L Horton
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. The collection includes an oral history interview with Gordon Atkinson, letters from Canada and a Canadian soldier, and photographs.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Gordon Atkinson and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-08-02
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Horton, AL
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
C.A.A.F.
[postmark]
Mrs D. Atkinson
Flixborough
Scunthorpe
[underlined] Lincs. [/underlined]
[censor stamp]
[page break]
H12167. Gnr. Horton. H.R.
[page break]
Holland. Dec. 28th 1944.
Dear Effie.
Just a line of thanks for the grand parcel I received from you a couple of days ago. The boys were certainly pleased to see the two cans of sugar and the can of milk. We were just discussing to-night and decided we would all write to England and ask for some sacharine [sic] tablets. They are much better than
[page break]
II
sugar. They are much easier to carry around and take the place of sugar. Don’t think Im [sic] telling you sugar isn’t worth sending, but Im [sic] thinking we might be running you short. So if you could get hold of a few tablets of saccharine it would help a lot and a little writing paper would help it is getting very hard to get hold of around here.
[page break]
III
I suppose you are wondering how we are standing the cold weather. Boy and let me tell you its really cold frozen up very hard but its much better than mud for Canadians anyway they like cold weather. Well Effie I hope you had a nice Xmas. And I wish you all the best for the new year. We had a grand Xmas dinner ourselves.
Well Cheerio for now.
Best of Love to you all. Hugh.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter to Effie from Hugh
Description
An account of the resource
An envelope addressed to Mrs D Atkinson, Flipborough [sic], Scunthorpe, Lincs from 4.12167 Gnr Horton H R. Envelope marked 'passed by censor' and CAAF. Inside is a letter to Effie thanking her for cans of sugar and milk, but asking for saccharine tablets if she can get them and writing paper. The letter is addressed from Holland. He remarks that the weather is very cold but that it suits the Canadians.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Hugh Horton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-28
Format
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One handwritten envelope and three page letter
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0001,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0002,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0003,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0004,
EHortonHRAtkinsonD441228-0005
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Flixborough
Netherlands
England--Lincolnshire
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40112/EDarbyCAHWellandJ441203.1.pdf
b869b86b6175a706f9b499fd0409bc96
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He has moved to Tuddenham , Suffolk. On the journey they rushed to a pub while waiting for a train. He writes that he cannot discuss what he is doing at his new base.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-03
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Suffolk
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
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Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
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EDarbyCAHWellandJ441203
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
aircrew
mess
Nissen hut
RAF Tuddenham
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40113/EDarbyCAHWellandJ441208.1.pdf
56d03da7010f68fff8d6cfa4628280d7
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He has received two letters from Jean. He is getting seven days leave. His new base is rough and ready and the food is not good.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-08
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ441208
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Suffolk
aircrew
military living conditions
RAF Tuddenham
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2200/40114/EDarbyCAHWellandJ441220.1.pdf
5e247a95b8a1a14ad97915205acc32fc
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Darby. Charles Arthur Hill
Darby, CAH
Jack Darby
Johnny Darby
Description
An account of the resource
203 items. The collection concerns Charles Arthur Hill Darby (1915 - 1996, 154676 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, photographs, documents and correspondence. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 186 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Richard John Darby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-02-02
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Darby, CAH
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Letter from Jack Darby to Jean
Description
An account of the resource
He describes his return journey to camp. His new camp has excellent accommodation and the food is good.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Jack Darby
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1944-12-20
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Correspondence
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two double sided handwritten sheets and envelope
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
EDarbyCAHWellandJ441220
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-12
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Suffolk
aircrew
mess
military living conditions
RAF Stradishall